October 16th, 2014 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka As children we were taught to never lie and to always tell the truth, no matter how bad the situation was. We were told the amazing anecdotal story of George Washington chopping down his father’s prized cherry tree and not being punished after telling his father: “I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.” (This never worked for me, by the way). Yet on Wednesday morning, Dodgers right fielder Matt Kemp was punished for telling the truth.
“Terrible, terrible strike zone,” Kemp told reporters after Game-3 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals in which home plate umpire Dale Scott consistently blew calls. “I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s disappointing because you’ve got guys out there battling. You know, this is two good teams going at it, and it’s supposed to be the teams, not the umpire, and I just feel like the umpire took the bat out of our hands today. He had a very generous strike zone. It’s hard to face good pitching when you’ve got a guy throwing a ball in the other batter’s box, and it’s called strikes.”
To his credit, home plate umpire Dale Scott did not eject Matt Kemp for arguing balls and strikes, which he very well could have done. (Photo credit – Michael Thomas)
Apparently Kemp’s former manager and current MLB Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Joe Torre wasn’t quite as forgiving as George Washington’s father was about telling the truth. Kemp was slapped with an undisclosed fine for his harsh (but truthful) comments about the 28-year veteran umpire.
But what about Dale Scott? Was he punished for his inconsistent and ridiculous strike zone? How is it that MLB doles out fines and suspensions to players, managers and coaches yet we never hear about punishments for umpires who blow calls?
“You’ve got to be accountable, man,” said Kemp. “When we do bad things we get punished, we can get sent down. When stuff like that happens [by umpires], you should be gone. There should be some type of punishment.”
Although no punches were thrown during Game-1 of the NLDS, benches cleared and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina was subsequently fined $5,000 for bumping into home plate umpire Jerry Meals.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
The truth is that umpires actually do get punished when they screw up, usually in the form of a suspension. They actually are held accountable. In fact, they are evaluated after every series during the regular season and after every game during the postseason. The problem is, these evaluations and/or subsequent disciplinary actions are never made public – and they probably never will be.
I cannot tell a lie, they absolutely should be.
Posted in 
RT @Think_BlueLA: New: Matt Kemp receives punishment for telling the truth – http://t.co/9zVvfsGoUx #Dodgers
It’s probably an unwritten rule that a player shouldn’t publicly criticize an umpire. He had to be fined regardless of the truth of his assertions.
The only way to avoid disputes on balls and strikes is to do it electronically. If that is not going to happen then just accept the called balls and strikes and don’t help umpires by swinging at pitches out of the strike zone or in the dirt.
I understand the ball-strike thing for players is so much more magnified in post season games because of the pressure of the situations. It is also a time for umpires to not be overly generous with strike zone. That really throws batters off.
I’m sure the next time Scott gets a Dodger game Matt will get all the close ones called in his favor…NOT!!! It seems to me Scott should not be assigned to any Dodger games next year because any close calls he will have to make will be questioned by both sides.
In most cases players apologize to umpires for “showing them up,” but with a hefty fine involved (probably $5,000) I’m thinking probably not this time.
It is incompetence like this that will eventually lead to electronically called balls and strikes.
You can better believe that the next Dodgers game Scott does, he will be watched very closely.
Good umpires are rewarded with postseason assignments. Hopefully Dale Scott receives his just reward.
BTW – You ever notice that Angel Hernandez, C.B. Buckner, ‘Country’ Joe West and ‘Balkin’ Bob Davidson never work playoff games? #JustSayin
Joe West is assigned to the post season every year. He worked last year’s NLCS. He worked the World Series the year before. The NLDS in 2011, the World Series in 2009, Division Series in ’08, and so on, all the way back to 1993. I agree, he sucks, but somebody in MLB must like him because he keeps getting the post season and All Star game assignments.
Actually, I think Joe West did work some games this time!
I think Matt was more than willing to pay the price for his free speech. I cringed a bit when I heard his comments. Yes, the strike zone was bad but there is no strategic advantage to venting about an umpire to the press other than to personally let off a bit of steam. Only wish they would have refocused a little bit of that anger on the field for the next game. Getting a bit tired of watching the current national league representatives!
You don’t think there’s a conflict of interest here with Joe Torre? Heck, he batted Kemp 8th. He benched him and didn’t tell him why…just left him hanging. Bigelow Joe is a joke and he has no business fining Kemp for telling the world what everybody already knew, and that was that Dale Scott called an unjust and terrible game. Ryu threw 25 more pitches because of that guy who refused to ring up batters that were struck out. Something he had no problem doing when Kemp was batting. It’s been 10 days and I’m still steamed about that debacle of a game he called. No excuses. He should not only be fined, but suspended and removed for remedial training if he wants to remain as an umpire.