What Is It With All These Ejections??

I saw the replay of last night’s game where Jacoby Ellsbury earned himself his first career ejection.  In the fifth inning, Ellsbury slid into home on a close play at the plate where he was called out.  Replays indicated that he was indeed safe.  Jacoby threw down his helmet violently in disgust.  Although home plate umpire Derryl Cousins had his back turned during all of this, he must have overheard Jacoby’s angry reactions.  In addition to that was Ellsbury’s helmet which was rolling around close to the on deck circle.  After seeing all this, Cousins decided that Ellsbury would have to leave the game. 

Earlier this week, good old Manny Ramirez also got ejected for tossing his arm guard near home plate umpire John Hirschbeck.  The only difference here was that Ramirez had been arguing with Hirschbeck earlier in the evening (although apologized for it in his next at bat).  Other than that it was a very similar scenario – Manny got called out on a terrible strike call, after which he tossed his arm guard up in the air in disgust.  Hirschbeck had his back turned to Ramirez, but heard the arm guard land at home plate, very close to where he was standing.  Hirschbeck tossed him on the spot. 

What I want to know is why both umpires were so eager to toss the players out of the game.  Both umpires had their backs turned when the equipment was thrown, and neither player  intended to hit anybody, nor did they.  In Manny’s case, his arm guard was a little close to the umpire, but it wasn’t like it was mere inches away.  I can also understand Hirschbeck being frustrated with Manny for arguing earlier in the game, but it seemed as if he were too eager to toss Manny. 

Same with Jacoby.  At least give the guy a warning or something.  Players get caught up in the moment, and it’s part of the game.   I’ve seen Kevin Youkilis toss his bat down the first baseline after striking out, and nothing happened to him as far as an ejection is concerned (I blogged about this earlier and said that Youks actions were unacceptable). 

To toss both Manny and Jacoby on the spot like that seems a little unfair to me – but don’t get me wrong, I still don’t forgive Manny.

Keep the Faith.