BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Must Not Have Been Camera Day

The day after Reggie Smith was ejected from Wednesday night’s game by home plate umpire Larry Poncino, the Dodger coach was still steaming. So was crew chief Bruce Froemming.

Froemming said Smith was ejected in the Padre half of the seventh inning because he “flaunted” a photograph of a called third strike at Poncino, then waved his hands in disgust. Smith said he didn’t do any of that.

Smith said he was upset initially because Raul Mondesi, in the bottom of the sixth inning, had taken a called third strike. He thought the pitch might have been too close for Mondesi to take. So he went into the video room and made a still picture of the pitch, taken from a camera on top of the stadium.

“I walked out with it and said to (the players), ‘You guys are not going to believe this, I’m sick of this,’ ” Smith said, referring to the called third strike, not Mondesi’s decision not to swing. “And Poncino said, ‘That’s it, you’re gone.’ ”

Froemming, though, said Smith has made still photos of calls several times this season. He said the umpires were aware of Smith’s tactic after Tuesday’s game, when players mentioned to him that they had seen pictures of a few questionable calls.

“If they want that for their review, fine, and they want to look at it and say, ‘Hey he missed it’ or whatever, fine, that’s their review,” Froemming said. “We’re not perfect, but we are not going to be intimidated by some stupid camera that sits at an elevation of 300 feet above a ballpark. If they can call pitches from there, then that’s where they can put the umpire, up there, and you would have a nice evening.”