HOUSTON — Houston Astros reliever LaTroy Hawkins was fined by Major League Baseball for comments he made about an umpire after he was ejected from a July 27 game in Chicago.

Bob Watson, baseball’s vice president in charge of discipline, would not reveal the amount of the fine.
“When a player, a coach or a manager criticizes an umpire, that speaks to the integrity of the game,” Watson said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Hawkins, on the disabled list since July 28 with shingles, told KRIV-TV and MLB.com before Wednesday’s game against San Francisco that he wants to appeal the fine.
“I don’t think the fine is appropriate,” Hawkins said. “I won’t tell you how much I was fined, but it wasn’t appropriate. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”
Hawkins was thrown out in the eighth inning of Houston’s 5-1 loss at Wrigley Field for arguing balls and strikes with plate umpire Mike Everitt.
The fine was levied for comments that Hawkins made to reporters after the game.
“Let me see. Do I want to tell you the version, the truth that’s going to get me in trouble or am I going to be the nice guy?” he said. “Well, I thought it was a strike and I told him ’Come on, I need that pitch. You don’t need any help.’ And he said, ’Knock it off.’
“And I waved him off and he threw me out of the game,” Hawkins said. “Maybe he was having a bad day. I thought he had determined who he wanted to win the game anyway.”
Hawkins is 1-4 with a 2.32 ERA. He has 10 saves in 13 opportunities.