New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone. (Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports)
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was suspended for one game on Friday after picking up three ejections in the span of just 10 games.
Aaron Boone has gotten in the habit of not finishing games in the Yankees dugout over the past couple of weeks. Now he’s not going to be in the dugout from the start.
On Friday, MLB suspended the Yankees manager for one game, to be served on Friday against the Padres, because of “his recent conduct toward Major League Umpires, including the actions following his ejection from Thursday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium.”
MLB chastizes Aaron Boone with suspension for treatment of umpires
Boone’s ejection on Thursday stemmed from his complaints over home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso calling questionable balls and strikes. The manager got in the face of the umpire but it’s not clear what the league meant by “actions following his ejection” on Thursday.
The league is within rights to discipline Boone for going off on umpires so often over the last 10 games. If you get thrown out on three different occasions in that span, you’ve got to find a way to reel in your emotions somehow.
But this is also an MLB issue on several fronts.
First of all, MLB lets the culture of berating umpires to their faces continue by not issuing significant suspensions more often. If an NBA coach got in the face of an NBA ref the way MLB managers do to MLB umpires on a weekly basis, they’d be in serious trouble.
There’s an even bigger issue than that though. MLB lets this happen because MLB managers are usually right. Moscoso was missing balls and strikes in those opening innings.
This certainly wasn’t the most egregious case of a home plate umpire missing calls but it happens often enough that managers lose their minds. And those umpires very rarely face any consequences besides a face full of spittle from an angry manager.
Set the standard for both managers and umpires and all of this would be less of an issue.