You are exactly right except your points support my contention rather than undermining it.
It is the umps responsibility to call the managers for a sidebar in that situation and say 'here's what happened now forget it and play ball.'
What they did CLEARLY put LaRussa in a difficult situation to either whine and get his players thinking about the wrong thing or look impotent.
I'm not a baseball guy, couldn't really care less. But this type of thing happens all the time in hockey and football and the refs go to the opposing coaches and explain the situation.
The importance of protocol in ensuring fair play is something even an attorney should be able to comprehend.
Yikes. Well, I guess I'll just have to humble myself before your driven purity, and recognize baseball for the moral swamp it is. And apparently has been. Since about 1880.
And that is exactly what happened. Per the AP article on the incident :
The flurry of between-innings meetings started after the first inning, when the umpires and La Russa talked out by first base.
Then, after the top of the second, Rogers was greeted by plate ump Alfonso Marquez as he walked off the field toward the dugout, and the two of them chatted for a full minute. Then Leyland came out of the dugout and he and the umpires spoke.
Then, after the bottom of the second, Marquez went over to the crowd and spoke with Steve Palermo, an umpire supervisor who was sitting in the front row next to the Detroit dugout.