New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected from his team's game against the Oakland Athletics on Monday for inaction. there is nothing.
This is not a “gotcha” scenario or a bait-and-switch. Other than standing in the dugout, Boone did nothing to warrant his ejection by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt. Unfortunately, he was standing directly below a nagging fan who may have looked an awful lot like Boone.
The incident occurred in just his second at-bat of the game. When right fielder Tyler Nevin came to the plate, Boone was attacking Wendelstedt, but Wendelstedt was having none of it. He warned Boone that if he said anything else, he would be ejected. And just 10 seconds later, Wendelstedt ejected Boone, and Boone was fully nuclear-armed.
“It doesn't matter who said it. You're gone!”
That usually doesn't happen, but at least this Aaron Boone exit created a nice hot mic situation. pic.twitter.com/EX2xUsjtKA
— Talkin Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 22, 2024
It was clear from the video that Boone didn't say anything, so why did Wendelstedt eject him? A slow-motion replay revealed that a fan sitting atop the Yankees' dugout was yelling something at Wendelstedt, who apparently thought it was a boom.
It's possible that Wendelstedt knew it wasn't Boone and didn't care. When Boone claimed he hadn't said anything to Wendelstedt, Wendelstedt responded, “I don't care who said it. You're gone!”
When asked about his ejection after the Yankees' 2-0 loss to the Athletics, Boone said, “It's embarrassing.” He added that MLB can be contacted about the call.
Boone called Wendelstedt's ejection “embarrassing.” “It's really bad. It's embarrassing. … “Obviously, it wasn't right.”
Wenderstedt also explained what happened after the game. He claimed that he heard someone complaining in the Yankees' dugout after the warning, and that he decided to eject Boone because he was “responsible for everything that happened in the dugout.” ing.
“In my opinion, the cheap shot came towards the far end. [of the dugout]According to Chris Kirshner of The Athletic, Wendelstedt said: “So instead of me being aggressive and walking to the edge and trying to find out who said it, I don't want to send players off. We need to keep them in the game. The fans… That's what you're paying to see. Aaron Boone, who runs the Yankees, was ejected.
“Apparently what he said was that there were fans directly above the dugout. This is not my first ejection. Throughout my career, I have ejected players and managers for fan comments. …I heard something from the other side of the dugout, and it's not his area, but he's the manager of the Yankees. So he was the one who had to go.”
If the greatest thing ever to happen is an ejection, I'll understand, but this qualifies. There was drama. There was anger. Referees have traditionally tended to avoid responsibility. This is a classic example of the power relationship between the manager and the referee, where the referee exercises his absolute and unquestionable power anytime and anywhere without any responsibility or consequence, and the manager does not. I have no choice but to accept it.
Wendelstedt is a second-generation umpire who has been on the field since 1998. He's not as famous as his CB Buckner or Angel Hernandez, but knowing the referee's name off the top of his head isn't necessarily great. We only know them because they are memorably bad at their jobs. Unfortunately, Wendelstedt could have found himself in the same tense atmosphere as Buckner and Hernandez on Monday afternoon. Because no one will forget him after that performance.
