Home plate umpire Doug Eddings did the one thing nobody wants to see in professional sports on Friday night in the St. Louis Cardinals-Colorado Rockies game. He made himself the focal point of the game.

In more ways than one. 

Doug Eddings angers Cardinals over hat issue, ensuing calls

The issue began in the bottom of the sixth inning when Cardinals rookie pitcher Hancel Rincon was making his major league debut.

Eddings, in the middle of an at-bat, told Rincon that he had to fix his hat and not wear it off to the side the way he initially was (and the way so many other pitchers in Major League Baseball have in the past, and still do now). That prompted Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol to confront Eddings about it during a pitching change, which resulted in Eddings issuing a pitch-clock violation to the Cardinals and ejecting Marmol.

Later in the game, Eddings made a controversial call on a play at the plate when he called Troy Johnston safe at home on a play that, upon replay, clearly looked to be an out. 

The Cardinals did not have a challenge remaining to challenge the call.

After the game both Eddings and Marmol spoke on the hat issue.

Eddings said Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman, who was at the plate facing Rincon, asked if the Cardinals pitcher was allowed to wear his hat as crooked as he was. Eddings admitted he did not know, and said he informed Cardinals catcher Leo Bernal to have Rincon straighten it.

Eddings then admitted there is no rule dictating anything specific on proper hat wearing. 

From MLB.com:

“It's not [a rule],” Eddings said. “I guess it's a little unwritten rule. They can't wear [their cap] backwards like a catcher. If it's a distraction, like anything on the field, like a glove or something, and someone makes you aware of it, then you kind of address that.”

Marmol continued to be furious after the game and called the entire thing "embarrassing" on Eddings' end. 

From The Athletic: 

“Some words exchanged there. Quite honestly, I thought it was pretty embarrassing on his end,” Marmol said on the Cardinals’ broadcast. “We have a kid making his debut, and in between an at-bat, he tells him that he needs to fix his hat and, ‘The kid’s not going to wear his hat like that on my field.’ Last I checked, this is Coors Field, so I took issue with it.”

The important thing in all of this is the admission from Eddings that "it's not a rule." 

Unwritten rules are unwritten for a reason, and if you want to make it something enforceable, then write it down. This is even worse than players and teams trying to enforce unwritten rules about when it is acceptable to bunt, or steal a base, or swing away in blowout games because it is an umpire inserting himself into something he should have no control over. 

It wasn't a case of bright jewelry that could have distracted a hitter, or certain color glove (the sort of thing that actually IS against the rules) or anything like that. It was a hat that was somewhat off center. Rincon is hardly the first pitcher to do that. C.C. Sabathia did it for years. So did long-time relief pitcher Fernando Rodney. Dontrelle Willis did it. Sonny Gray still does it now, and has pitched in games that Eddings has umpired without any issue. 

Whether Goodman said anything or not, Eddings didn't have to insert himself if it's not a rule. 

This was purely a power trip.

It was a power trip over a young player making his debut. It was a power trip over the manager that stood up for his rookie. And it certainly calls into question how he got a call at home plate so obviously wrong later in the game. 

Major League Baseball umpires need a consistent remember of one important fact in these games -- people are not watching because of them. They are not the attraction. They are not the reason fans pay money to buy tickets, the reason they invest their evenings in watching games, or the reason they buy hats, jerseys, shirts and other merchandise. They are simply there to enforce the rules that are on the books and get the calls right. Eddings failed in all of that on Friday, all while trying to make himself feel more powerful than he actually is. It is a consistent problem in the major leagues, and the league needs to rein them in before it gets really outrageous.