Air Force Academy baseball coach Mike Hutcheon (left)
Air Force Academy baseball coach Mike Hutcheon didn’t feel much like watching his reeling baseball program get swept by the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels this weekend.
Rather than sit and watch a team that had five players suspended last month and another two dismissed earlier in the season, Hutcheon, who has already announced his resignation, got thrown out of two games and suspended from the third of the three-game weekend series.
To be fair, a source who attended the game told After Action that Hutcheon got thrown out because of bad umpiring. However, the consecutive ejections draw more negative attention to the baseball program two weeks after he announced he would resign at the end of the season.
The coach’s resignation comes after the Academy suspended five players for violation of academy standards in April and dismissed another two players earlier this season for disciplinary reasons.
Hutcheon was thrown out Friday by the home plate umpire after he argued a “couple questionable balks.” On Saturday, he walked out to argue a call at third base with the third base umpire, who had thrown him out the night before as the home plate umpire. The same umpire tossed Hutcheon as he began to walk away and made a dismissive hand gesture.
Hutcheon served a mandatory one-game suspension on Sunday dictated by the Mountain West Conference whenever a coach who is thrown out of consecutive games.
The Colorado Springs Gazette wrote a good article summing up Hutcheon’s problems at the Air Force Academy here.
