Brewers' Unrequited Love For Umpires

The Wisconsin State Journal has splurged most of this year's travel budget to send Vic Feuerherd on the road to cover what became the Milwaukee Brewers' slide out of contention. As a result, Feuerherd was there for Sunday's meltdown in Atlanta that resulted in a 7-4 loss and manager Ned Yost's ejection over arguing a play at the plate.

Today Feuerherd provides a sidebar that sheds some light on last night's multiple Brewers-umpires confrontations, in which Yost, batting coach Jim Skaalen, and catcher Damian Miller all got tossed.

Yost didn't want to rehash Sunday's events.

But he spoke about how he has tried in five years as manager of the Brewers to promote relationships between his players and the umpires. The team puts pictures of that night 's four umpires on a bulletin board in the clubhouse and the arrangement includes biographical information and what base they are covering.

"We try to treat people like people, with class and professionalism,' ' Yost said. "All we ask is that (the umpires) have the same respect for us."

So, despite the bulletin board love complete with photos and cutout pink hearts, the email requests for dates, and the Myspace messages, the umpires haven't reciprocated. That's how it always is: the nice guys who treat the objects of their affection with class get shot down, while the bad boys with three days of stubble get all the girls.

- Barry Orton