Ortiz faces fine, ban

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Red Sox slugger David Ortiz almost certainly will be fined and suspended after he pushed Sox manager Terry Francona into home plate umpire Matt Hollowell, then threw two bats onto the field that caromed and just missed hitting two other umpires following his ejection for arguing a called third strike leading off the seventh inning last night.

A worst-case scenario for Ortiz and the Sox is a 10-game suspension similar to the one handed down to former Sox outfielder Carl Everett when he head-butted plate umpire Ron Kulpa in 2000. In a similar incident that occurred more recently, Dodgers outfielder Milton Bradley was suspended four games after he threw a bag of balls onto the Dodger Stadium field after he was ejected by plate umpire Terry Craft, although the balls were not hurled in the direction of the umpires and there was no physical contact with the umpires.

The umpiring crew, headed by chief Bill Hohn, planned to file a detailed report of the incident last night to Bob Watson, the vice president of on-field operations for Major League Baseball and Tom Lepperd, the director of umpire administration. Watson was expected to review both the umpires' reports and a videotape of the incident today.

Hohn spoke for the umpiring crew after the game.

"The pitch wasn't that bad," he said. "The pitch was a strike. [Ortiz] was demonstrating with the waving of his arms and he was warned. And then he did it two more times after he was warned, and then there were curse words, I'm not going to tell you what they were."

Arguing balls and strike calls is subject to automatic ejection, which normally carries a $250 fine.

Asked if there had been contact with Hollowell while Francona attempted to place himself between Ortiz and the umpire, Hohn said: "Absolutely. Not with David. David pushed Terry into Matt."

That is considered contact, Hohn said.

"I would think so, the way we saw it," Hohn said.

"He throws his elbow pad back at us, that I did see," Hohn said, describing Ortiz's conduct while he was being kept away from the umpires by several Sox coaches. When he returned to the dugout, Ortiz took two bats with his left hand and flung them onto the field. They struck near the first-base line, and bounced toward Hohn and the third-base umpire Mark Carlson, who were standing near the plate.

"I did not see the bats come flying out," he said. "I turned to see whether Terry was in a calm argument, and the next thing I know, I could hear [the bats]. I didn't know they were coming until they hit the ground. Mark actually saw him pick the bats and throw them."

Hohn said the bats did not strike any umpires.

"They missed us by inches," he said.

Immediately after the game, Sox CEO Larry Lucchino went into the umpires' room and apologized. "That showed tremendous class by him and the Red Sox organization," Hohn said.

"Terry Francona also did an outstanding job stopping the situation at home plate."