Dodgers are not left seeing red with umpire over bats brouhaha

Familiar with baseball’s color rules? No? Apparently they exist when it comes to bats.

During Friday night’s game against the Padres, home plate umpire Greg Gibson spoke to Carl Crawford and Hanley Ramirez about the color of their bats. And it wasn’t that they didn’t match the rest of their ensemble.

“He said my bat was too red or something,” Crawford said. “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

Now there are white bats and brown bats and black bats and red bats. But evidently they can be too red. Crawford just went with it.

“He didn’t tell me not to use it; I just don’t have time to be arguing with an umpire,” he said.

Seems logical that you have to draw the line on colors at some point. Suppose a neon green bat might be distracting to a pitcher, though once every year baseball lets everyone play with pink bats on breast cancer awareness day.

Crawford’s bat is sort of a maroon color, so it’s still fairly dark. Yet until Friday, I had never heard of a too-red rule.

“Me neither,” said Crawford.