Yankees manager Aaron Boone may have been ready to move past the ejection flap that occurred in Monday’s loss to the A’s, but the YES Network broadcast got some jabs in during Tuesday’s telecast.
Boone was tossed from Monday’s game by Hunter Wendelstedt after the home plate umpire is believed to have thought comments from fans actually came from the Yankees dugout.
The stir made headlines, and on Tuesday, the YES Network mics caught home plate ump John Tumpane yelling at Oakland’s Esteury Ruiz after the A’s center fielder disagreed with a called strike.
“Hey, I’m not going to talk about balls and strikes. I’m right there,” Tumpane could be heard saying on a mic. “I’m right there with them. You know that.”
The moment led broadcasters Ryan Ruocco and John Flaherty to have some fun with the moment.
“John Tumpane — was that a Hunter Wendelstedt impression? There’s Hunter,” Ruocco said as the camera panned to Tumpane. “Didn’t want to take ownership of that yesterday, either. His postgame comments were interesting.”
The bit continued as the YES cameras panned to some fans behind the A’s dugout.
“Was it any of them or was it someone actually in the A’s dugout?” Ruocco added.
Wendelstedt had seemed to double down on his decision to toss Boone after the game when he spoke to a pool reporter despite video evidence that seemed to clearly show that the Yanks’ skipper had not said anything toward the ump.
“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,” Wendelstedt 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.”
Giants announcer Duane Kuiper also made light of the situation during the team’s game against the Mets on Tuesday night when home plate umpire Lance Barrett warned the Mets dugout for it’s comments during Starling Marte’s at-bat in the fourth inning.
“Lance Barrett not happy with someone in the Mets dugout,” Kuiper said. “Let’s just hope it’s not a fan that’s doing the yelling.”
Mets play-by-play man Gary Cohen got his jab in as well on SNY: “Was it [manager] Carlos [Mendoza] or was it a fan sitting behind him?”
When the topic was broached on Tuesday, Boone said that he was ready to move on.
“I saw his comments after the game. I think everyone has seen the video of what happened,” Boone said. “You saw my comments, you saw his comments. I’m beyond it now. Let’s move on. We have an important game tonight. That’s where my focus is, and just kind of moving on from it.”
The Yankees defeated the A’s on Tuesday, 4-3, at Yankee Stadium.