Top Five Manager Meltdowns.

(WARNING: SOME OF THE VIDEOS IN THIS POST CONTAIN LANGUAGE THAT SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE)

Now this....this is a post I've been waiting a long time to do.

There's nothing better than seeing a baseball manager lose his mind on the field. There've been some crazy ones, some funny ones, and some are just plain strange.

Sometimes managers have to put on a show and get extra fired up to defend their players, or perhaps get their team's fans fired up. When a player is ejected from the game, it is usually because they argue with the umpire too much, they throw their helmet, or he makes physical contact with the umpire in some way. For example, we have Brett Lawrie of the Toronto Blue Jays (he's Canadian). You can see here what happens when Lawrie tosses his helmet after what are two horrible strike calls:

Were they bad calls? Absolutely. Should Lawrie have thrown his helmet? Absolutely not. I don't know whether it was Lawrie's premature running to first after thinking that he took a walk that set the umpire off on him, but there was something possessing the home plate umpire to make those two calls. No matter what happens, you can't throw your helmet at the ump in any way. 

Situations like this pose dilemmas for managers. What Lawrie did was completely out of line yes, but it is the managers job to go out, and defend his players whether he thinks they are right or wrong. Here is a much more tamed examples of a player being ejected at home plate, where a manager may feel more inclined to defend his player. Joey Votto (also Canadian) of the Cincinnati Reds who was ejected just for saying something to the home plate umpire:

No matter why ejections happen, sometimes it's funny to watch a manager goes completely off the rails. Here are my top five manager ejections. 

#5- Gary Allenson

Remember earlier how I talked about how some manager ejections are just plain strange? Yeah, this is one of those ones. 

While disputing an overturned call on what he thought was a home-run by one of his players, Norfolk Tides manager Gary Allenson did something a little bit strange that held up the game for more than ten minutes. 

#4- Jim Leyland

It's not often that you see old Jimmy go off the rails like he did against the Toronto Blue Jays here in 2011. The now former Detroit Tiger's manager (he resigned he was not fired) was upset because his player was called safe even though he was clearly out. When the umpires decided to change the call and call the base-runner out, this happened. 

#3- Earl Weaver (WARNING: LOTS OF SWEARING! SERIOUSLY! PARENTS PUT THE EAR-MUFFS ON THE KIDS)

Earl Weaver. The man, the myth, the legend. The former Orioles bench boss loses his mind in this one. But the best part is when the umpire ejects him and yells "BOOM!" It's so great. 

#2- Wally Backman (WARNING: THERE'S A LOT OF SWEARING IN THIS ONE AS WELL. SO MUCH SWEARING. PUT THE KIDS TO BED FOR THIS ONE!)

This one is probably my favourite. I can't give it number 1 status, but Wally Backman has some of the best meltdowns out there. Backman was managing at the time for the South Georgia Peanuts in the now defunct South Coast Independent League. The Peanuts won the championship that year, which also turned out to be the only year that the league existed. Whether you love him or you hate him, it's safe to say Wally always had his players best interests in mind, even if he didn't carry himself the right way. One thing the league did give us was one of the best manager meltdowns of all time. It should be noted that that weekend was a struggle for the Peanuts, who were playing at a crappy ball-park that didn't even have a clubhouse, the grounds crew couldn't even get the tarp on the day before when it was raining. Needless to say it wasn't a professional ball-park, and the umpires were not professional either, as the league office looked into the matter and suspended the home plate umpire for the ejection of both Doc Brooks and Backman. 

For more Wally Backman you can find another good one here or anywhere on Youtube as their one and only season was filmed in the documentary "Playing for Peanuts".

#1- Phil Wellman

Anyone who's seen any countdown of manager meltdowns has absolutely seen this one. There's not much else to say about it. Wellman was managing for the Atlanta Braves affiliate at the time. It's either a crazy man completely going off the rails, or it's a work of art. 

There it is! Some of the craziest people to every be associated with the game of baseball, all because of one video that caught on in the sports world.

There will be World Series posts up very soon, you can also follow me on Twitter (@burnsy004) for updates on the World Series, and more posts to come soon!