Aaron Boone has been ejected again, and now the New York Yankees’ manager is taking his gripes with the umpires public.
Aaron Boone is known less for his managerial presence in the New York Yankees’ dugout and more for his epic blowout arguments with umpires. He’s getting tossed from games at a historic rate and now, after his fifth ejection of the year, Boone is more than happy to openly criticize the umps.
Boone was tossed from Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals after arguing an egregious strike call on DJ LeMahieu.
He walked to the plate with all the calm and poise of a professional and was swiftly dispatched by the officiating crew. Here’s what went down:
Aaron Judge criticizes umpires after getting ejected from Yankees’ loss to Cardinals
Boone has now been ejected 31 times in under five years as head coach. While his fiery attitude makes him a favorite in the locker room, he clearly has a reputation among umps. It should surprise nobody that his leash is shorter than others based on that reputation.
Here’s what Boone said on the matter after the game, from the New York Post:
"“The sensitivity on that and the quick throwout was brutal. It was ridiculous. You gotta have thicker skin than that. You gotta have a little bit of room to let us say something. We said one thing, [he put his] hand up, [then I was] out. That’s wrong in my opinion, especially coming from what I think’s got a chance to be a really good young umpire. It’s ridiculous.”"
Boone has an intimate knowledge of the intricacies of the coach-umpire dynamic. Clearly, he felt like the umps crossed the bridge to ejection a little too soon, but Boone argued the missed strike for several moments — for much longer than he actually held the umps’ attention.
The result here isn’t particularly surprising or egregious. Boone’s comments do cut to the core of an issue in all sports: officials regularly get too caught up in their own feelings to rationally adjudicate games. But, in this case, there’s really nothing the ump can do but eject Boone. He’s explicitly breaking the rules, disrupting the flow of the game, and overstaying his welcome.
The Yankees have been on a team-wide roller coaster in recent weeks due to injuries to Aaron Judge and other key contributors. Boone is probably frustrated with the team’s inconsistency and as he was sure to note to reporters, the missed strike on LeMahieu came at a pivotal point in the game. St. Louis went on to win 5-1.
There’s an argument to be made that circumstances like this shouldn’t warrant ejection, but the rulebook does not side with Boone. Coaches aren’t supposed to argue balls and strikes and Boone’s reputation, fair or not, does make it virtually impossible for him to have an extended-but-rational argument.
Umpires are known to appreciate Boone’s fire and there doesn’t appear to be any bad blood off the field, but Boone’s general demeanor is going to leave him vulnerable to these circumstances for the rest of his career. Time to get used to it, Aaron.