Aaron Boone used two words to describe his first-inning ejection, which is two more than he said to earn the ejection in the first place.
The Yankees manager was tossed in the top of the first inning against the A’s on Monday afternoon after being warned by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt to stop complaining.
Boone did what Wendelstedt asked, but a fan in a nearby seat screamed at the umpire and he immediately tossed Boone.
Aaron Boone #17 of the New York Yankees argues after he has been ejected from the game during the first inning. Jason Szenes / New York Post“It’s embarrassing,” Boone said when asked about the ejection after the Yankees’ 2-0 loss to Oakland. “It really is a bad… It’s embarrassing. Just not good.”
Boone came charging out of the dugout after Wendelstedt ejected him and explained that he had not said anything after the warning.
That, somehow, did not matter.
“I don’t care who said it, you’re gone,” Wendelstedt said.
Boone said he did hear what the fan said to Wendelstedt, but wasn’t given much of an opportunity to clear his name.
Aaron Boone #17 of the New York Yankees argues after he has been ejected from the game during the first inning. Jason Szenes / New York Post“I did, and I heard somebody yell, but I was standing down and I heard ‘You’re gone, Aaron,” and I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Wendelstedt pushed back against Boone’s claim it was a fan that triggered his ejection. The ump said his focus was on the other end of the Yankees dugout.
“I know what Aaron was saying that it was a fan above the dugout. That’s fine and dandy,” Wendelstedt said to a pool reporter. “There were plenty of fans that were yelling at me before I called a pitch till the end of the game. What happened was, it wasn’t him, it wasn’t over where it was (bench coach Brad) Ausmus was. It wasn’t where the coaching staff and Aaron, but Aaron Boone is the manager of the New York Yankees and is responsible for everything that happens in that dugout.
“In my opinion, the cheap shot came towards the far end (of the dugout). So instead of me being aggressive and walking down to the far end and trying to figure out who might have said it, I don’t want to eject a ballplayer. We need to keep them in the game. That’s what the fans pay to see. Aaron Boone runs the Yankees. He got ejected.
“Apparently what he said was there was a fan right above the dugout. This isn’t my first ejection. In the entirety of my career, I have never ejected a player or a manager for something a fan has said. I understand that’s going to be part of a story or something like that because that’s what Aaron was portraying. I heard something come from the far end of the dugout, had nothing to do with his area but he’s the manager of the Yankees. So he’s the one that had to go.”
