A weird night unfolded during a Louisville Bats vs. Indianapolis Indians game, and it all started with a line in the dirt. A Bats player stepped up to the plate and drew his usual line before hitting, part of his routine. He swung through the first pitch and took the next for a strike. The umpire tossed him immediately, accusing him of trying to show him up by drawing a line where he thought the pitch missed. The hitter insisted he does it every time. The manager came out, fired up, defending his player. He repeated over and over that the guy always draws a line before hitting. The exchange got loud but surprisingly didn’t lead to the manager getting tossed. Things cooled down—for a minute.
Then it got weirder. The home plate ump bent down to clean off the plate and broke his belt. He called for a timeout and asked his crewmates for help. One ump lent him his belt for an on-field swap as the players laughed and tried to keep the game moving. In the chaos, the manager chirped one too many times and finally did get ejected. He stormed back out, yelling at the third base ump and mocking the whole situation—”you can’t umpire without a belt?” Things escalated again as another ump stepped in to calm him. The ejected manager admitted he wasn’t even sure what he said to get thrown out but had clearly had enough. All around, the crew was cracking up. The third base ump looked like he might have enjoyed the chaos more than anyone.