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The best compliment game officials in any professional sport can receive is to hear that fans didn't really even notice them. Sure, sometimes being noticed is inevitable. Maybe that's where Sam Holbrook falls concerning Wednesday night's Orioles-Red Sox game. It's a tall order to work behind the plate as it is in big-league baseball, but to work behind the plate in this intense environment where the commissioner had to have a talk with both teams to try and defuse tensions is a very tall order. 

So I guess maybe some will excuse Holbrook for the overreaction here in tossing Kevin Gausman: 

Had warnings been issued and that been a fastball, the ejection would have been a no-brainer. Instead, that was a 76.6 mph curveball. The incredulous reactions from the Orioles say it all. Just a ridiculous ejection. 

Here's Holbrook to the Fenway Park pool reporter (masslive.com): 

"Just given the situation and the tension between the two clubs and all the stuff that's gone over the past few weeks, we're all on high alert with anything. I know that the ball was a curveball. But it hit him square in the back and just making a split decision at that point right there, there needs to be an end to this stuff, and I felt like an ejection was the right thing to do at that time, and that's what we did. Thankfully, we didn't have any more problems the rest of the game." 

So, were there no tensions between the two clubs when Dylan Bundy dotted Mookie Betts on the hip with a fastball Monday or when Chris Sale threw a fastball behind Manny Machado on Tuesday? Where's the consistency? 

Later, Holbrook tossed Adam Jones -- who has had quite the week -- for arguing balls and strikes. 

Holbrook has a leg to stand on here, given that players technically aren't permitted to argue balls and strikes (plus, we don't know exactly what Jones was saying), but c'mon. If Holbrook is gonna consider the context in the Gausman situation, how about considering what Jones has endured this week? Not only that, but Jones wasn't overly showing him up. He was walking back toward the dugout and not facing Holbrook. People not in the first few rows facing Jones wouldn't have any idea he was complaining. 

Further, though I disagree with treating things in his manner, veteran umpires supposedly give more leeway to respected veteran players than younger and less established guys. Jones is in his 12th year, a five-time All-Star and is as respected by his peers as any player in baseball. 

Again, if Holbrook was using context in the Gausman ejection, there was a complete lack of context in tossing Jones. He could have let Jones say his piece as he walked back to the dugout and made it known that it stopped at that point. 

On top of all that came with the Orioles' trip to Fenway Park this week, we were treated to a total Ump Show on Wednesday night. 

Being a major-league umpire is a very tough and often relatively thankless job, but that doesn't mean a home plate ump should make himself a story. That happened Wednesday.