In baseball, arguing with an umpire can get you ejected from a game under many circumstances. Arguing whether a pitch was a ball or a strike will get you thrown out, as will throwing equipment, cussing the umpire out, or continuing to argue with him after he’s turned his back on you. Players can and do get ejected, but more frequently the manager of the team will be the one asked to remove himself from the premises and not come back. Quite often, the manager will try and get ejected in order to keep one of his players from being tossed out. The reasoning is simple: the team needs the player on the field. The manager usually finds his way down the tunnel in the dugout and watches the game on TV, and tells the coach who has taken over what to do in different situations.
There are some managers who are legendary for their ability to get ejected from ballgames. The all-time leader in ejections, though, is Bobby Cox, formerly the manager of the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays. Bobby set the record for ejections in 2007, having been ejected for the 132nd time, overtaking the previous holder of the record, John McGraw of the New York Giants. He finished his career with 161 ejections, 159 regular-season games and two World Series games. Here’s a playlist I found that shows some of them (it also has some other managers being ejected).
The last video is of his last game ever, a playoff game against the San Francisco Giants in 2010 which the Braves lost. At the end, all the fans and the players from both teams gave him a standing ovation.
Bobby Cox is now in the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager. They’ve overlooked the ejections.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
I love that your theme this year lets you pick a random word and go off on a tangent, it’s all been really interesting so far! I’ve seen some ejections, but didn’t realize it was sometimes the manager falling on his sword, lol.
Jamie Lyn Weigt | Theme: Odds and Ends Dragons | Writing Dragons
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Billy Martin was another good one for getting ejected. I know the managers do it on purpose for lots of reasons. Most of the time they are pretty funny.
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Earl Weaver was another one. I saw him get thrown out of both ends of a doubleheader. Earl just liked to argue, though, and the umpires knew it.
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We didn’t get TVbaseball over here before cable TV obviously but girls and boys played rounders until 11 (or used to) but after that it’s a girls’ only game (and much smaller field game than baseball! Not watching it just now I noticed time and late again with my own. Nice to catch up with your posts though. Cheers and best wishes.
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How are you doing? We’ve missed you.
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Hi John, I keep forgetting to add my link to the daily form, but no worries. I’ve seen in past years you all carry on with a virtual road trip and i hope to follow through – I’ve visited quite a few new blogs and really enjoying it although it is very challenging and I’m not guilting myself along the way. Lovely to find your blog. i’ve heard good things about the team and will get round to all the volunteers eventually within the month, hopefully.
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If my last comment confused you, it was because I know another Collette who lives in Jamaica (so there’s a chance they play rounders there) who’s been away for a while. Still, I’m happy you stopped by…
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Hey I grew up with Bobby Knight as an idol, I know all about management taking it to the next level for the passion of their team. <3
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A friend of mine took that famous picture of Bobby Knight throwing a folding chair and came up with an ad for “Bobby Knight Bowling Chairs.”
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Haha, I can’t a front row view of that action often! I think the year I graduated college was his last year coaching.
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Hi John, I do want to apologize for my lack of communication lately, but my back has been acting up (not to mention Charlie hehehe~ he’s going crazy right now because the mail lady is here he hates her & her truck and suggestions to get him over it is sooooooo appreciated), and way back to biz…. yes, baseball… hmmm I no nothing of baseball except maybe a few songs ~hehehe~! Now, I do watch the world series and saw the White Sox win. I love it when our team wins. Also, I get excited when the players get excited and argue fight and throw water/ice cubes at their manager… bwahahahaha LOVE THAT!!! I was raised in Bridgeport (Mayor Daley’s neighborhood), and my dad taught me how to drive in the White Sox Parking Lot (when it was closed naturally)… but that’s as close as I ever came to baseball. Oh, and my granddaughter Niki is a pitcher and I think she’ll be going to college on that cuz she has a speed of hmmm what was that again… oh darn, I cannot remember when I find out I’ll let you know, but it’s really really fast and she’s had offers already and she’s only 13. Graduating grammar school this summer. Plus my baby has diabetes Type II I believe. So sad, but she handles it well. Anyway, I shall be back… hey, I might learn something right? Have a great day! hugs Goin’ back to leave comments on other and see them…
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Can you put him in a room by himself when you expect the mailman? (Probably not… they have this way of knowing and if they can’t bark at him they’ll probably tear up the room, right?) Great news about your granddaughter!
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A brawl or ejection is always entertaining in my opinion
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For a few years, every time the Yankees came to Chicago there’d be a huge fight at some point during the weekend. They are kind of fun to watch…
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Take one for the team!
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Did you happen to see the one in the playlist where it was Chuck Tanner, at the time the Pirates’ manager, who got thrown out? That was a game from Bobby Cox’s first tenure as Braves manager. Chuck got fired in Pittsburgh and became Braves manager after that, after Joe Torre, who replaced Bobby the first time he was fired. Strange game, baseball. (Chuck’s first Major League managing job was with the White Sox in the early Seventies…)
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I didn’t catch that, John. It’s tough when I try catching up on these post at work during lunch. Clint Hurdle (current Pirates manager) manages to get tossed a few times every year.
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I watch baseball a lot, but never realized that the managers would purposely get themselves ejected to save a player. Totally makes sense though.
Once Upon a Time
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Manager logic also dictates that getting ejected will wake the team up and they’ll play better, although empirical evidence suggests otherwise. But yes, I would guess that 90% or more of ejections are the manager trying to keep a player in the game.
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That’s an interesting technique, deliberately being ejected in order that the player stays on the field!
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It’s good strategy, although occasionally the player and Bobby got thrown out together.
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OOOOOOO so my son had a baseball coach when he was 7 going on 8 and we called him SC (that stood for our leauge but also for SCREAMING COACH) That man was always screaming about the sun in the faces of batters or fielders and “Why are we on this diamond when I requested that diamond!” and he told my son that he played like a T-baller and should stick to hockey and the umps were uneducated and on and on and on.
He was thrown out for hissy fits.
We were known as the “Psychos from Wxxxxx”
He literally stomped on both feet when kids got out.
Needless to say, we quit and now we are in a new league. My husband and a friend from that leauge who also quite coach and the kids are happy.
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That’s just abuse. There’s no call for that, especially with a kid that young. I’m glad you found another league if only to get away from him.
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Since my brother is an avid fan of baseball since he was a kid, you would think I have heard about this but..I have not. Interesting how these games work
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Baseball, more so than just about any sport, is a game of strategy, and it’s less a physical game than a mental one. Athletic prowess doesn’t always equate to success on the baseball field, and just because you were a great player doesn’t mean you’d make a good manager. Bobby had a very brief major league career, but he knew the game and became one of its best managers.
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