Using a baseball tactic that former college baseball player Gavin Newsom would surely understand, the Legislature has begun throwing brushback pitches at the lame-duck governor.

The batters got too close to the Senators' plate, closing in, and the Senators brushed them off with inside fastballs.

In everyday terms, they have ignored him, at least temporarily, to prevent California's chief executive from overstepping their bounds.

The latest and most dramatic example occurred recently at the end of Congress' two-year session.

As is Newsom's habit, to the increasing frustration of lawmakers, he waited until the last minute to introduce a key bill that he argued would avert high gasoline prices by requiring oil refineries to stockpile oil.

“These price hikes are actually profit surges for big oil companies,” he argued.

But Governor Newsom's proposal was controversial and complicated — so complicated that Democrats in the Assembly complained that there wasn't enough time in the session to thoroughly consider the issue, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) refused to even consider the governor's proposal, which was a brushback proposal.

So on Saturday night, as the Legislature was about to recess until the newly elected Legislature convenes in December, Governor Newsom made good on his earlier threat and called lawmakers back into special session to implement his proposal.

But in an unprecedented rebellion, the Senate stood up to the governor and refused to call a special session. Democrats could have passed the bill during the regular session and an overtime session was unnecessary, said Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg). See you in December.

It was a brilliant brushback pitch from Maguire.

However, the Senate President has since softened his stance.

He now says he will call the House into special session, but with one condition: the House must first agree to a bill and send it to the Senate. He won't ask senators to wait in Sacramento while the House holds hearings and negotiates internally, Maguire told me.

“This issue isn't just a matter of having a conference. It's a matter of getting the votes,” he said. “The Senate had the votes. The House didn't have the votes. The solution to all of this is finding a majority of House members who will support the bill. And the House has a job to do.”

“If the vote passes, I will immediately bring this bill to the Senate for debate. [Democratic] “At this point, we are 100% in agreement that we will not be holding a caucus anytime soon.”

Why did McGuire soften his staunch opposition to a special session?

“The governor and I had a productive meeting and discussed the way forward,” he replied.

Governor Newsom, of course, has a long list of bills in his arsenal to fight back: Hundreds of bills are on his desk waiting to be signed or vetoed by September 30. Rewarding your allies and punishing your foes is the essence of politics.

In any case, it's questionable whether the Senate can legally refuse a governor's request for a special session. The Senate is a separate and co-equal branch of government. But the state constitution gives the governor the power “to call the Legislature into special session” in “extraordinary cases.”

Its power has never been tested in court, and it can order the governor to go without penalty.

“The Constitution reads like Congress has to convene, but it's up to Congress to decide when to convene,” said Chris Micheli, a law professor and lobbyist. “It's up to Congress to vote. They can just adjourn and be done with it and say, 'We convene, thank you.'”

Rivas told me he hopes to begin hearings on the bill within the next few days and pass it by the end of September, but don't be surprised if this drags on into October.

The Speaker has established a large, 19-member Committee on Petroleum and Gasoline Supply, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the House, to hold hearings and consider the bill.

Newsom wants to give the California Energy Commission the power to require refiners to keep a steady supply of fuel on hand to prevent shortages and price spikes when plants are down for maintenance — prices are determined by supply and demand, the basis of a free market economy.

But opponents and skeptics, including the oil industry as well as some moderate Democrats, argue that the proposed solution itself could cause a temporary price spike as gasoline is taken off the supply grid and stockpiled.

We're told Rivas himself is still not convinced of the bill's value.

Neither the speaker nor the Senate majority leader was willing to publicly harshly criticize the Democratic governor.

But many of his Democratic colleagues are weary of Mr. Newsom's deadline-driven maneuvering, especially since he has spent so much time traveling around the country trying to raise his national political profile, and they believe he should focus more on California's Capitol and negotiate directly with lawmakers on issues he considers important.

“Anything worth doing requires an investment of time and relationships and taking a proposal to the finish line,” Maguire said when I asked him if Newsom should have acted sooner to advance the refinery bill.

“Frankly, we're all Democrats. We need to work together.”

“I told him frankly that it wouldn't work for me and it wouldn't work for the Legislature,” Rivas said when Newsom urged him to rush the bill without public hearings or debate.

Governor Newsom could and should have begun negotiating his proposal with the Legislature in January. His last-minute antics have become stale and counterproductive.

His season is over in 28 months, he better try to hit the ball better, learn from the brushback pitches.