Cincinnati Reds: David Bell’s explosive tirade was completely justified

While David Bell is no stranger to ejections, the Cincinnati Reds manager was completely justified in his anger during Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Bell became irate after second baseman Jonathan India was hit in the head by a fastball from Cardinals’ pitcher Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty went up and in on a pitch to India during the top of the sixth inning. The ball struck India in the helmet and the Reds rookie went down. By no means do I believe that Flaherty was intentionally throwing at India, in fact, I don’t think that’s why Bell lost his cool. Bell didn’t seem too distraught until the umpires issued warnings to both benches.

David Bell was incensed that the umpires issued a warning to the Reds bench.

While we’ll have to wait to hear from the Reds skipper as to why he was so angry, I feel pretty comfortable in assuming it was because his bench was issued a warning despite not throwing at anyone on the Cardinals team.

If the umpires want to issue a warning to both benches, then Flaherty should have been ejected. There’s no reason to warn the benches unless you assume intent, which there wasn’t. Furthermore, the Reds had no opportunity to retaliate, so the umpire shouldn’t warn both benches.

If David Bell has shown us anything over his time as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, it’s that he despises the notion of retaliation and throwing at players. His team was part of huge on-the-field brawl with the Pittsburgh Pirates back in 2019 for that very reason.

Bell has been effusive in his stance that there’s no place in the game for intentionally throwing a baseball 90-plus MPH at another player. So, for West to warn the Cincinnati bench is complete and utter nonsense.

While we’re on the subject, can Major League Baseball put a microphone on the field? So, rather than guess that both benches were warned or assume that David Bell was thrown out, an official announcement can be made. C’mon, MLB; get with the times.