Things have gotten a bit tense during the series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks. So tense, in fact, that Diamondbacks chief baseball officer Tony La Russa invaded the Pirates’ broadcast booth during a game to dispute on-air comments.
Things started when Pirates reliever Arquimedes Caminero hit two Diamondbacks players in the head Tuesday night. While the pitches were unintentional, Arizona manager Chip Hale was critical, saying that Caminero shouldn’t be pitching if his control is so poor that he can’t avoid hitting players in the head.
The Pirates’ TV broadcast made comments about La Russa’s history as a manager, stating that he liked to retaliate in situations like this. La Russa heard the comments and barged into the booth Tuesday during the game to have a word with the Pirates’ broadcast crew.
“I never have stood for inaccuracies, so I corrected the inaccuracies,” La Russa said, via Jeremy Cluff of AZCentral.
“It’s about taking responsibility. If you’re going to speak untruths then you’re going to get challenged and you should be responsible for what you say. I am. I reacted.”
Players confronting broadcasters about on-air comments isn’t a completely foreign concept, but this is above and beyond that. If La Russa wanted to dispute something said on the Pirates broadcast, he should have reached out and tried to set up a way for him to do an interview on the broadcast, or even speak to the press about his grievances. Bursting into the booth during the game is poor form, and he should know better.
