The past week has been one of great tension in the United States, with the controversial Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend and counter-protests in response to the alt-right’s racially charged rhetoric. President Donald Trump has also faced great criticism this past week after initially refusing to outright denounce the right-wing radicals and later doubling down and seemingly taking their side.

In these contentious times, it’s important for Americans to rally together and take a stand against the evils in this country. Lot’s of people are busy talking the talk, but not many are actually walking the walk.

However, one group that is taking a stand are MLB umpires.

On Monday night, Detroit Tigers second baseman Ian Kisler was ejected mid-at-bat in the top of the 5th inning for looking at home plate umpire, Angel Hernandez, after a called ball. The ejection was dumbfounding to many but I trust Angel Hernandez’s judgement. He’s been an umpire in the MLB since 1991, a much longer tenure than any active players, and if he, in his expert opinion, thinks that Ian Kinsler deserved an ejection, then he deserved an ejection.

Unfortunately, Ian Kinsler wasn’t pleased with the ejection and proceeded to throw a temper tantrum and yell at Angel Hernandez. I also feel obliged to call into question the leadership of Tigers manager Brad Ausmus because he joined Kinsler on the field and yelled at Hernandez too, joining Kinsler in the clubhouse with an ejection.

This embarrassing display of immaturity would be bad enough, but Kinsler didn’t stop there. When talking to the media the next day, Kinsler’s continued his war of words against Angel Hernandez.

Kinsler was asked if he was surprised how quickly he was ejected: “No, I’m surprised at how bad of an umpire he is.” Angel Hernandez

— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) August 15, 2017

“He’s messing with baseball games, blatantly,” Kinsler said of Hernandez. “It has to do with changing the game. He’s changing the game.”

— anthony fenech (@anthonyfenech) August 15, 2017

Angel Hernandez was naturally offended by Ian Kinsler’s hurtful words about him and he wasn’t the only one upset about it. Players have become less and less respectful of umpires in recent years and Kinsler’s tirade against Hernandez was the final straw. Today, the World Baseball Umpiring Association issued a statement:

#WUA issued the following statement in response to escalating verbal attacks: pic.twitter.com/wGLIoLOUq0

— MLB World Umpires (@MLBaseballUmps) August 19, 2017

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It would’ve been easy for umpires to stay quiet and continue to take verbal beatings from the players, but if the umpires did nothing then nothing would change. Instead, the umpires decided to take a stand stand once and for all. And of course, every great protest needs a great leader, and the MLB umpires are no exception.

Umpire Joe West before taking the field today wearing white wrist band to protest escalating verbal attacks on MLB umpires! pic.twitter.com/a8TkW2JCip

— MLB World Umpires (@MLBaseballUmps) August 19, 2017

Of course, umpires knew equality wouldn’t come easily. Chalk it up to an aversion to authority, but people don’t seem to be on the umpires side.

I love and respect umpires. I have umpire friends. This is ridiculous. The capacity for misperceived martyrdom is unmatched. https://t.co/wM3DfvlYtf

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 19, 2017

Now, before we can fix the problem of hostile relations between MLB players and umpires, we have to address the cause. I wonder what it could be?

Over the past few years, Donald Trump has proven that it’s OK to bully people to get what you want and baseball players have been paying attention. It’s hard to blame Ian Kinsler for his sophomoric behavior when the President of the United States of America set an example by bullying his way to the most powerful office in the land.

It’s bad enough that Donald Trump is ruining the United States of America, but he’s also ruining the MLB. Baseball’s gotten itself into a hole but it isn’t too late to turn things around. And luckily for the fans, MLB umpires are taking action by protesting bullying from players, and therefore protesting the President of the United States of America.

#resist