Umpire Alan Porter Appeared to Cuss at Daniel Murphy After Request to Move

Washington Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy made what seems like a reasonable request to umpire Alan Porter on Tuesday night.

Move a bit so I can see.

Porter didn’t care for the request and escalated the situation with Murphy — and at one point appeared to utter a “f–k you” in frustration.

The two apparently worked things out over the course of the game.

“Alan and I talked,” Murphy said. “I think we both understand we’ve got a job to do, and we were both able to discuss and work through that. By the end of the game, there were no problems whatsoever. I don’t foresee there being any problems in the future, either.”

As a fan of cool heads and sanity, I should hope so. Murphy is well within his rights to ask an umpire to move slightly in order to improve his sight line. As long as he’s not a jerk about it there should be no issue. A defender’s positioning should always take precedence over a base umpire’s, within reason.

But, a simple “please” and “thank you” can go a long way.