Bob Davidson, the ump in last night’s Rays/Sox game, went so far over the line in his actions, response, demeanor, it should be used as a training video on how NOT to act as a professional umpire.

Just watch here.

See if you can count the F-bombs.

And because we all like these, here’s Bob Davidson’s normalized strike zone. More oval than square, wider on the sides.

And the non-normalized chart:

We got to take an abbreviated look at the beautiful new field in Minnesota last night, until the rains came. Thankfully, it seems that Target Field is playing a lot like CitiField…BIG:

The Twins gave Burnett a scare in the third inning, when Justin Morneau thought he got all of what — in the end — would have turned out to be a game-winning solo home run. But the ball died just in front of the flower-box overhang in right field, landing safely in Nick Swisher’s glove.

Evidently, this is not an uncommon occurence at Target Field.

Home runs are down 36 percent compared with the 2006-09 average at the Metrodome. Only Seattle’s Safeco Field and McAfee Coliseum in Oakland have yielded fewer homers per game in the American League than Target Field (1.38).

Baseball’s newest park is playing big, swallowing long fly balls and short-circuiting home-run celebrations.

[...]

Twenty-one games into Minnesota’s inaugural season at Target Field, the empirical evidence proves hitters need more than an extra pastry to muscle balls over the fence.

Only 29 homers have been slugged at Target Field compared with 55, or 2.2 per game, at the Metrodome through 25 games last season, according to hittrackeronline.com, a website that records data for every major league home run.

The first-place Twins have hit just 10 of their 28 home runs at home. Michael Cuddyer leads the way with five and has yet to bag one on the road. Justin Morneau is the only other Twin with more than one at Target Field. In 63 plate appearances at home, Joe Mauer still is waiting to clear the fence.

The question is, will Mauer and Morneau suffer or stress over the lack of home-town power like David Wright has been doing in Queens? Probably not, but who would have envisioned the precipitous decline in power (and spike in Ks) experienced by Wright in the first place? Could the team lobby management to bring the fences in, as they did in Detroit after Comerica Park opened and played very big? [At least Target Field appears to be devoid of all in-play gimmicks, like flagpoles and hills and unnecessary wall height changes.

I hope not, personally. The team is not built on major sluggers, though M&M clearly have that ability. The team is fast and the large OF seems to be tailored to their strengths (speed and defense). Minnesota won’t be trying to sign the highest priced, big-boppers out there anyways, so if I were a Twins fan, I wouldn’t be overly concerned. I just might temper my expectations for seeing M&M hit as many at-home homeruns.

For one night at least, I’m really happy that the air was heavy and the fences were far.