Heartwarming: Preposterous Doug Eddings Umpshow Unites Cardinals And Rockies In Dislike Of Doug Eddings

The concept of A Cop On The Edge was once a disreputable film genre unto itself. This was not really a good thing in terms of what it indicated about where the culture was on the issue of vigilante violence, among other things. But its passing is also unworthy of much mourning because these movies were bad enough that one of the genre's signature moments was a twitchy and inexplicably be-gloved Sylvester Stallone cutting a slice of pizza with some desk scissors while wearing sunglasses indoors. All of the defects in our popular and political culture naturally flow in the direction of making the archetypal furious American dunce into a hero, and the fantasy of a man Taking Matters Into His Own Hands after being Pushed To The Limit, with maximal punishment exacted against everyone you'd expect, has certainly not gone anywhere. I do not want to give the impression that anything has really improved in this area. It's just that, where this particular archetype is concerned, the actual fact of the thing cannot measure up to the impossibly alpha and normal image of Sylvester Stallone wearing leather driving gloves while eating pizza in a way that no one has ever eaten pizza before in 1986's Cobra. In reality, what we are talking about when we talk about guys like this is a man repeatedly trying and failing to maintain some semblance of emotional control in defiance of their own issues and inadequacies before melting down and lashing out, generally while pulling a bunch of undignified faces in the process. This is not a cool and commanding figure; what we are dealing with, when and where we deal with this type of man, is a beet-red umpire type guy flipping his shit for reasons that he can't remotely comprehend. This turns out to be a difficult thing to cheer for, both at a moment when people like that are in charge of everything and also just on principle. The incident of Ump On The Edge behavior that led to a moment of inspiring solidarity between the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies during Saturday's game began on Friday night, when home plate umpire Doug Eddings took it upon himself to enforce some unwritten rules on rookie Cardinals reliever Hancel Rincon as he made his big league debut in the sixth inning.

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