And Wrestling's Fake Too?!?!

And Wrestling’s Fake Too?!?!

From Zack Meisel’s shocking report that will surely damage the game and ruin the childhood’s for every baseball writer out there: it turns out sometimes managers want to be ejected.

“I remember a manager yelling and screaming and coming out and saying, ‘I have to get run,’” said umpire Ted Barrett, who has governed big league games for 19 years. “So I tossed him, and he starts ranting and raving about how bad his team is. ‘My pitcher is terrible. My bullpen can’t get anybody out. My hitters haven’t hit a ball out of the infield in three days. My clubhouse guys serve crappy food.’ And on and on.

“I started chuckling at him, and the guy gets up in my face and says, ‘Don’t you laugh. If you laugh, then they know this is all an act.’ So I did everything I could just to bite my tongue.”

But while that may all be fun and games, an umpire must know which line never to cross. And that is the line of the heart:

“After Maddon disputed a call in 2007, Barrett told him that one more word would trigger his ejection, so the skipper simply replied, “I love you.” Sticking to his guns, Barrett tossed him.

“I ejected him and then realized, ‘What do I put in my report, that I ejected him because he told me he loved me?’ That just stumped me,” Barrett said. “I had never had a manager tell me he loved me before.”

Meisel left out Barrett’s tearful addition, “But all I’ve ever wanted is to be loved.”

Click through for the whole thing. It’s definitely worth it.