Several St. Louis Cardinals players hit the field Saturday with their hats tilted, a clear show of support for rookie pitcher Hancel Rincon after a wild incident Friday night. This wasn’t some new fashion statement, this was a direct shot at home plate umpire Doug Eddings.
Umpire Says ‘Fix Your Hat,’ Manager Says ‘You’re Out!’
Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. During Rincon’s MLB debut against the Colorado Rockies on Friday, Eddings actually called time in the middle of an at-bat just to tell the kid to straighten his tilted cap. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was not having it, arguing with Eddings over the ridiculous situation. The result? Marmol got tossed from the game. To add insult to injury, while Marmol was out there debating the hat issue, Cardinals reliever Justin Bruihl got slapped with a pitch clock violation. Marmol didn’t hold back after the game, calling Eddings’ actions “embarrassing” especially since it was Rincon’s first big league outing. “Quite honestly, I thought it was pretty embarrassing on his end,” Marmol told reporters. “We have a kid making his debut, and in-between an at-bat, he tells him he needs to fix the hat, and ‘The kid’s not going to wear his hat like that on my field.’ Last I checked, this is Coors Field.” He took serious issue with it all. And the pitch clock violation while he’s talking? “That’s also stupid, in my opinion,” Marmol added. “At the end of the day, I thought they handled it poorly, and I’d like an explanation at some point.” You bet he does!
‘Unwritten Rule’ or Just Wild? Rockies Catcher Speaks Out
Umpire Eddings reportedly claimed the tilted hat was an “unwritten rule,” and that a Colorado batter actually pointed out the angle of Rincon’s cap to him. Talk about throwing someone under the bus! But Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman, who was facing Rincon when all this craziness went down, absolutely shut down any idea he complained. “I never once mentioned the hat,” Goodman said Saturday. He doesn’t care how a pitcher wears their hat, he’s just focused on the ball. “I’m trying to find out where the ball is coming out, and I’m trying to worry about what I’m doing in the box. I’m not worried about how his hat looks,” he explained. Goodman even called the whole thing a “wild, wild thing that happens in the game.” He didn’t appreciate his name getting dragged into it either, especially since he didn’t even notice the hat was messed up when he was hitting. So much for that ‘unwritten rule’ being pointed out by the opposition, huh?
What a way for a rookie to start his MLB career, right? Luckily for Rincon, his teammates clearly have his back, literally tilting their hats in solidarity as the Cardinals continued their three-game series against the Rockies on Saturday. You gotta love seeing that kind of support, especially when a kid gets caught up in a weird “unwritten rule” drama.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleacher Report.
Leave a Reply