Does This Ump Have A Personal Vendetta Against Joe Maddon?

Umpires have a very tough job and no one can say that they've never messed up at their own job. But.....

That call in the above tweet was pretty atrocious.

It came at a pivotal point in last night's 4-2 loss to the Phillies. The Cubs were down two with a man on and no one out. Tony Kemp took a 2-2 pitch that was WAY outside that home plate umpire Marty Foster called strike three.

I honestly think that everyone was so surprised by the call they just thought it was kind of funny instead of getting irate.

Tony Kemp had some thoughts on the matter last night.

I'm kind of curious what kind of fine will result from that.

You might be thinking "Yes Joe, that's a bad call. Why would you think that the ump might have it out for Maddon?"

Great question. Let's rewind a few years when Joe Maddon was with the Rays and Ben Zobrist (now also a Cub) when they got royally screwed by the home plate umpire.

That honestly might have been an even worse call. The pitcher seems to be VERY surprised that he got the strike three call. The home plate umpire for that game?

Marty Foster.

Coincidence? Probably not. There aren't much more thin-skinned group of "professionals" than MLB umps. The Cubs have two more games with Marty on the field making calls. It'll be interesting to see if Maddon gets ejected over the next two days. I'm putting the odds at around 50%. Can't wait to see some fireworks out of Joe.