Right before Sunday’s Miami Marlins-Cincinnati Reds game, a young Reds fan greeted Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon with a kick to the shin.
Umpire Bruce Dreckman walked five-year-old Leo Schneider over to meet Gordon and he quickly kicked the speedy leadoff man.
It turns out that Dreckman put Schneider up to it.
“It was all planned,” Amy Danzo-Schneider, Leo’s mother, told MLB.com. “He’s not the type of kid who would go up and kick someone. Dee Gordon was motioning Leo to come to him. The umpire went with Leo, and Leo said the umpire told him to kick [Gordon].”
Schneider’s attempt to slow Gordon down was unsuccessful, however, as Gordon led the game off with a single. He then stole second base.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent