bad calls

Yankees Manager Ejected From Game in Hilariously Unjust Fashion

Oakland Athletics v New York Yankees
Aaron Boone in disbelief on Monday. Photo: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Baseball fans can watch the sport for decades, yet on any given day witness something they’ve never seen before.

A perfect example of this truism arrived on Monday afternoon when Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected from a game for yelling something he didn’t yell.

Thankfully, microphones picked up the whole thing.

It all went down in the top of the first inning during a tilt between the A’s and Yankees in the Bronx. Boone and veteran umpire Hunter Wendelstedt started jawing right from the beginning of Monday’s game over whether the A’s leadoff hitter had swung at a pitch that hit him. In footage of their exchange, Wendelstedt can be heard warning Boone, “You got anything else to say, you’re gone.” Boone looks displeased but does not comment further.

A few seconds later, a Yankees-hat-wearing fan sitting near the dugout yells something — it’s not clear what — at Wendelstedt. Not realizing the provenance of the remark, the umpire turns back around and immediately tosses Boone from the game. Boone, apoplectic, attempts to explain that he did not say anything, to which Wendelstedt replies, in the manner of an overtired parent, “I don’t care who said it, you’re gone!”

Boone attempts to point out the offending fan and then pleads his case with the umpire, offering some reasonable defenses, such as “I did not say a word!” and “I did not say anything, Hunter!” and “I did not say a fucking thing!” Wendelstedt is unmoved, and Boone must take comfort in the Yankees’ hot start to the season from his team’s locker room.

The team, perhaps out of sorts with bench coach Brad Ausmus temporarily managing on Monday, ended up losing to the A’s 2-0. And after the game, Wendelstedt refused to admit his obvious error:

It’s all patently unfair. But you know what they say:

Yankees Manager Ejected in Hilariously Unjust Fashion