MLB umpire forced into grovelling apology after ‘joke’ decision sparked protest from both teams

MLB umpire Doug Eddings took exception to Hancel Rincon’s fashion choice during his Major League debut.

Eddings stopped play in the sixth inning of Friday night’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies to tell the rookie to straighten his hat on the mound.

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Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol spoke to Eddings about the incident, and as a result, Eddings charged St. Louis with a pitch clock violation.

Marmol continued to protest from the dugout, before the umpire proceeded to eject the manager from the game.

In the same inning, with St. Louis out of challenges, Eddings proceeded to make a bad call at the plate to allow Colorado to score the go-ahead run.

Cardinals announcers Chip Caray and Brad Thompson launched into Eddings when discussing the situation in the next inning.

“If that’s in fact what happened, if Doug Eddings behind the plate was telling Rincon to fix his hat, that is a flat-out embarrassment,” Thompson said.

“That is not his job to do. He’s not wearing his hat backwards. This was not a uniform violation.

“This was a guy just wearing his hat the way that he wears his hat, if in fact that’s what happened.

“And if that’s what happened, how come nobody says anything to Jazz Chisholm?” Caray asked.

“If that’s the case, that’s a joke,” the play-by-play man concluded.

“Sometimes umpires think it’s their game, their field. It’s not. They’re the officials, they’re in charge, but it’s the players’ game, I thought.”

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Eddings forced to apologize after Cardinals and Rockies protest

On Saturday, it was clear to see that there were still hard feelings between the Cardinals and Eddings.

In the dugout, the broadcast captured multiple St. Louis players wearing their caps tilted, just like Rincon.

Caray and Thompson also noted that several Rockies players also wore their hats like this in support for the rookie.

After the enormous amount of backlash, and player protests, cameras captured Eddings stopping Rincon on his way to the bullpen to apologize to him during Saturday’s game.

“He apologized for what happened (Friday) night,” Rincon said in Spanish with bullpen catcher and team interpreter Kleininger Teran present to translate.

“He also told me good luck for the rest of my career as a big-leaguer.”

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Rincon said he replied to Eddings, “It’s nothing personal.”