It today’s game between the Oakland A’s and New York Yankees, MLB umpire Hunter Wendelstedt created a stir of controversy almost immediately.
Hunter Wendelstedt Controversy
In the top of the first inning, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said something that angered Wendelstedt after Yankees starter Carlos Rodon hit Esteury Ruiz. Wendelstedt finished the interaction with a warning to Boone, saying, “if you’ve got anything else to say, you’re gone.”
With television cameras still fixed on Boone, who was simply chewing gum, Wendelstedt tossed Boone from the game.
Immediately, a shocked Boone pointed at himself in disbelief while Yankees bench coach Brad Ausmus pointed to a fan sitting just above the Yankees bench.
After realizing his mistake, Wendelstedt doubled down saying “I don’t care,” as Boone and Ausmus plead their case. Now, because of Wendelstedt’s actions, the Yankees lost their manager for almost the entire game.
Unsurprisingly, Wendelstedt, a notorious ‘pitcher’s umpire’, called multiple balls off the plate as strikes, impacting hitters from both teams.
Not the First Time
Wendelstedt has had a relatively clean track record but has had a few negative interactions with longtime MLB manager Ron Gardenhire.
Over the course of Gardenhire’s tenure as a big league manager, Wendelstedt ejected the former Twins and Tigers skipper on at least 5 occasions. Most notably, Gardenhire was ejected from a playoff game between the Twins and Yankees back in 2010 over a controversial missed strike eventually led to a Yankees run.
With all the ejections, Gardenhire once called Wendelstedt “Rabbit Ears” following an ejection in 2005.
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