MLB expected to review Aaron Boone, Hunter Wendelstedt incident involving fan
NEW YORK — Major League Baseball is expected to look at the Monday incident involving Aaron Boone, home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt and a fan sitting behind the Yankees dugout, a source told the New York Daily News.
The source, granted anonymity so that they could speak freely, said that it is standard for the league to review “all ejections and unusual on-field circumstances.” They added that Boone’s ejection and “other circumstances would merit reviewing.”
Wendelstedt tossed Boone after just five pitches in the Yankees’ Monday loss to the Athletics.
It all started when A’s leadoff man Esteury Ruiz got hit by a pitch on his back foot to start the game. As the slider grazed the center fielder’s foot, Ruiz also checked his swing. Wendelstedt then motioned toward the first base umpire, John Tumpane, who signaled that Ruiz did not swing.
Boone thought that Ruiz went around, and he wanted Wendelstedt to check on the hit-by-pitch as well. The YES Network’s broadcast overheard a fiery Wendelstedt telling Boone that he did indeed check, and that the manager would be ejected if he said anything else.
“I really didn’t even go after Hunter,” Boone said after the game. “I was more upset on the appeal. I said, ‘Hunter you can call it, too,’ and he came back at me pretty hard, to which I didn’t respond. I just said, ‘OK,’ went down.”
After that, multiple camera angles showed Boone staying quiet on the top step of the dugout. However, a fan in a blue pullover sitting directly behind Boone heckled Wendelstedt, which seemed to spark the ejection.
“Aaron, you’re done,” Wendelstedt screamed. “I don’t care who said it. You’re gone.”
Boone, stunned and livid, tried to tell Wendelstedt that a fan had said something. He even pointed toward the man in blue.
“What do you mean you don’t care? I did not say a word! It was over by the dugout,” Boone replied before letting out some profanity. “I didn’t say anything. I did not say anything, Hunter!”
After the game, Boone repeatedly called the situation “embarrassing.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Boone nor players knew what the fan in question said.
Meanwhile, Wendelstedt told a pool reporter that the fan had no impact on the ejection and that he had not seen a replay by the time he spoke. Rather, he claimed a “cheap shot” came from the “far end” of the Yankees’ bench.
Rather than taking the time to search for the culprit, Wendelstedt decided to make Boone responsible for the alleged actions of his team.
“This isn’t my first ejection,” Wendelstedt said. “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.”
Wendelstedt added that Boone was “probably” not the one who made the comment that set him off. But “Aaron Boone runs the Yankees,” the official reasoned. “He got ejected.”
While speaking with the pool reporter, Wendelstedt twice repeated the “I don’t care who said it” line that he uttered to Boone during the game, which originally angered the manager.
With MLB expected to review this ejection, the source said that umpires have one day to file a report. That report would be reviewed by the league’s baseball operations department. The source added that the league would speak with the Yankees as well.
Boone already said that he planned on contacting MLB himself.
If discipline were to result from anything that happened, MLB would make an announcement.
