Blue Jays manager John Gibbons blasts Jose Bautista for getting ejected
By Dan Zinski
Sometimes getting ejected from a game is a good way to fire up your team and/or send a message to the fanbase, but sometimes it’s just a plain stupid thing to do.
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Jose Bautista’s ejection from Sunday’s Blue Jays-Rays game falls in the latter category in the estimation of Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons.
After the game, Gibbons expressed his frustration with Bautista (via thestar.com):
"“The bottom line is we needed him in the game,” Gibbons said of Bautista. “Say your piece and get the hell out of there. We’re trying to get in the playoffs, we need you on the field. He’s a marked man in this game. (Plate ump) Bill Welke? I thought he had a pretty good (strike) zone today. It was steady, he was calling strikes. He was looking to call strikes. But we need you in the game.”"
That’s about as frontal as I can ever remember a manager being in tearing down a player for getting ejected. Gibbons really drives the message home by actually sticking up for umpire Bill Welke.
When was the last time a manager took an ump’s side against a player that forcefully? I have to believe there are some behind-the-scenes tensions between Gibbons and Bautista. This feels like a tip-of-the-iceberg situation.
The Blue Jays are still in the race, but things seem like they might be unravelling up there. This could be a slow death everyone-crushing-one-another in the papers sort of implosion going on.
I love those.
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