MLB tells umpire Doug Eddings he made a mistake in demanding Cardinals pitcher straighten his hat

It's not often you see Major League Baseball criticize umpires or an individual umpire, as the league office prefers to downplay any mistakes or poor calls.

But what veteran umpire Doug Eddings did on Friday during the Colorado Rockies-St.

Louis Cardinals game apparently warranted such unusual treatment.

Eddings inserted himself into the game, apparently believing that fans buy tickets to see umpires, when Cardinals rookie reliever Hancel Rincon entered the game to make his major league debut.

Rincon had his had tilted to the side, obviously not the traditional way to wear a baseball hat, but hardly anything exception or unusual in the modern game.

Bizarrely, though, Eddings felt it necessary to instruct him to fix it.

Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was unsurprisingly furious, rushing out to defend the 24-year-old pitcher.

Marmol could be seen telling Edings to "grow the f*** up" before getting tossed from the game, then went off about Eddings behavior afterward.

HOT MIC CATCHES HEATED ARGUMENT BETWEEN MLB MANAGER AND UMPIRE AFTER CONTROVERSIAL EJECTION "I had an issue with Doug," he said to the media after the game.

"Just Doug.

He took it upon himself to tell our rookie pitcher the kid’s ‘not going to wear his hat on my field that way.’ You got Dontrelle Willis, CC Sabathia, Pedro Strop -- plenty of guys that have worn it way more tilted.

I have an issue with that.

That’s just a power-hungry move, in my opinion." Eddings then defended himself by telling reporters that he'd made the decision to step in after a hitter from the Rockies complained about the hat.

"The batter said, ‘Hey, can he wear his hat like that?’" he explained after the game.