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Temper Tantrum

Former Cubs pitcher takes off his shirt, throws rosin bag at umpire, has all-time KBO meltdown

We’ve seen some amusing bust-ups and dust-ups relating to the MLB’s new foreign substance checks this season. Max Scherzer and Sergio Romo threatened to get naked. Lance Lynn threw his belt at an umpire. Nothing on the level of George Brett popping his top after getting tossed for pine tar, but still pretty fun. None of those, uh, let’s call them enthusiastic exchanges, however, can compare to the tantrum former Cubs lefty Mike Montgomery threw in the KBO on Friday, bull rushing an umpire and beaning him with a rosin bag before ripping his shirt off and storming from the premises. Behold the insanity ...

That is grade-A, angus-certified crazy, and was all because the umpire warned him about the KBO’s 12-second pitch clock. As any armchair therapist will tell you, it was about A LOT more than just that—maybe daddy didn’t give attention to the fact that mommy didn’t care, to quote noted Cubs fan Eddie Vedder—but as far as justifications go, it’s a pretty weak one.

Not that it’s anything new. Montgomery made a habit of burning bridges during his major league career. He threw a fit when the Cubs wouldn’t hand him a starting job in 2017. He eventually moved to the Royals and then the Yankees, inserting an opt-out clause in his contract that would allow him to walk if he wasn’t promoted to the Yanks’ major-league roster by June 1st. June 1st came and went without a call-up, so Montgomery took his talents to Daegu, where he signed with the Samsung Lions for the remainder of the 2021 season.

If Friday is any indication, however, something tells us he might not last that long ...

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