Have you ever heard of Phil Wellman? Not many people had. He'd always wanted to be a pro baseball player, and in 1984 he fulfilled his dream. By 1988 he began his career as a baseball coach. He was always known as a smart, steady asset to any organization. He did his job quietly. That all changed on June 1, 2007.

By then, Wellman was the manager of the Mississippi Braves of the Southern League of Professional Baseball. His team was taking on the Chattanooga Lookouts. When the umpire threw Wellman's pitcher out of the game, accusing him of using a foreign substance, and Wellman's reaction made the evening news not only in this country, but around the world!

Wellman just lost it! He started by covering home plate with dirt, then tracing in the dirt a new, significantly larger home plate. He then went on to uproot bases and throw them, crawl in a prone position across the infield like a soldier, and pretend to bite and hurl the rosin bag at an umpire as if it were a hand grenade. He concluded his tirade by pretending to eject the umpires themselves with a fist-pump and then blowing a farewell kiss to the crowd while taking a bow.

Wellman was slapped with a three-game suspension, but in that instant, he became a national celebrity! In March 2009, ESPN showed the top-10 meltdowns in sports history and judged Wellman’s to be #1.

Upon showing the clip, Hannah Storm said “and there he goes, never to be seen from again.” Co-anchor Josh Elliott added “end of his career.” However, he is still manager and on September 13, 2008, he led the Mississippi Braves to the Southern League championship beating the Carolina Mudcats 3-2 in the 10th inning of the decisive Game 5.

He was also brought up to the major league Atlanta Braves team for a couple of weeks in September 2009.

Moral of the story? It never hurts to go a little nutty once in a while! But don't try this at the office!

nutty - baseball - umpire - braves - argument - tantrum - tirade - meltdown - manager - ejected - phil wellman