Steve Phillips was not a fan of Phillip Wellman's excellent managerial tirade this weekend, noting on Baseball Tonight this evening that, "It's not about entertainment, it's about teaching these young men how to act."

With all due respect, Steve, you are only half right. Yes, part of a minor league baseball manager's job is to help the players on his team, many of whom are young guys in their early twenties, learn how to act appropriately in a variety of settings. In that regard, Wellman probably could have done a little better - very few awkward social situations involve the throwing of either a resin bag or a hand grenade.

As Stephen A. Smith might say, HOWEVA - to suggest that entertainment should not be a primary goal of any minor league baseball team is ridiculous, and watching a manager throw a temper tantrum is among the most enjoyable things that can happen during a stoppage of play. Why shouldn't we embrace it as a few minutes of good old fashioned fun, so long as nothing gets out of hand?

--OMDQ

I expect behavior like this from Ozzie Guillen, Jim Leyland, or Lou Piniella, but you know something is wrong in the world when GRADY LITTLE gets ejected from a game for arguing with an umpire. The umpire even commemorated the special occasion, Karl Ravech noted, by banishing Little with his left hand.

Seriously, Grady Little is quite possibly the most laid back human being on the face of the earth. If he was tossed from more than three games in two seasons as Red Sox manager, I would be shocked. He approaches umpires in anger so rarely that there isn't even a good "angry" picture of him to use here.

Ironically, just about the only manager in organized baseball who hasn't been kicked out of a game this week is the guy pictured above, Bobby Cox, who I believe is currently tied with John McGraw for most career ejections. Based on what we've seen lately, however, he'll be in sole possession of that record in no time.

Photo: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Online

Posted by OMDQ

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe, possibly, this manager was unhappy with the home plate umpire's interpretation of the strike zone:



Thank you to Sports Bastards for putting this clip in front of me right now and inspiring me to break down this gentleman's performance after the jump.

The Approach: Normally, I prefer arguments that start with the principles behaving in a somewhat civil manner before someone insults someone else's mother and things get ugly. In this case, however, the full on rush into the umpire's personal space is warranted because the manager was ejected before he left the dugout. I like to think he would have taken it more slowly, but was able to adapt to the situation when necessary. Nice work.

The Classics: Managed to work in the hat throw, home plate dirt cover, and the base toss. Actually, it might have been base tosses, but a cut in the video prevents us from seeing what actually happened to the bags. One second he has them in hand while stalking off the field, the next he's empty-handed and blowing kisses to the crowd. Obviously, we need more video of this event.

Originality: Using a resin bag as a hand grenade? Who ever saw that one coming? And to lead into it the way he did? Possibly over the line, possibly brilliant. Either way, easily worth a 17 out of 10.

Overall Rating: According to the Mikulik Scale, a 7.9, pending resolution on the fate of those bases, which could potentially up the already stellar originality score. Even with all the question marks, however, this was still a quality managerial temper tantrum.