College baseball umpires are at it again. In the middle of an Athens Regional game against Liberty — the kind of postseason atmosphere these kids dream about their entire lives — Georgia's Tre Phelps launched a massive home run, did what literally every human being on Earth would do after hitting a massive home run in a regional, and got ejected for it. Welcome to NCAA baseball, where joy is a personal foul.
The aftermath: Phelps headed back to the dugout while a Georgia coach went nose-to-nose with the umpires.
This is the kind of thing that genuinely makes you wonder what we're even doing here. A 3rd baseman hits a bomb in his home regional, in front of his home crowd, with a trip to a Super Regional on the line, and the guy in the blue shirt decides HE is the main character. Pardon My Take summed it up about as cleanly as anyone could — this is supposed to be America, and last we checked, America is pretty pro-celebrating-home-runs.
PMT incredulous at the ejection as the dugout argument spills out onto the field.
The best part — and the part that has this thing going viral well beyond Athens — is what Phelps' teammates did once he was gone. Instead of sulking or letting the bench go quiet, they hung his #1 jersey up in the dugout like a flag. If you're going to get screwed by an ump, this is the response you want from the guys behind you.
The Bulldogs dugout with Phelps' #1 jersey hanging above the bench in tribute.
Barstool, for its part, has spent the last several hours absolutely scorching the crew, and honestly it's hard to argue. Postseason college baseball is one of the most fun events in American sports specifically because the kids haven't had the joy umpired out of them yet. Toss a guy for flipping a bat or yelling toward his dugout after a regional home run and you are actively making the sport worse. The umps wanted to be the story. Congrats, fellas — you are.
Barstool's official tip of the cap to the crew that decided a celebration was the real problem.
Thank God for these college baseball umps who ejected Georgia Star Third Baseman Tre Phelps for celebrating his massive home Run against Liberty https://t.co/r8hXwGXwvK
Free Tre Phelps. Let the kids play. And maybe, just maybe, let a guy enjoy the biggest swing of his life without getting a thumb for it.