Aaron Judge's ejection highlights need to make umpires more accountable for their actions
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, left, argues with home plate umpire Ryan Blakney after Aaron Judge is ejected for arguing strikes in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium, Saturday, May 4, 2024. Credit: Corey Sipkin
Aaron Judge has played 870 career games in the course of nine seasons. He’s had more than 3,700 plate appearances, composed of more than 16,000 pitches, and has had 586 of those pitches incorrectly called for strikes.
And through it all, he’s never been ejected. Until Saturday afternoon, that is.
It happened in the seventh inning of the Yankees' 5-3 win over the Tigers after Judge took a called third strike on the outside edge of the zone. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said as he took his bat and walked away, adding, “That’s [expletive].” With Judge’s back turned, plate umpire Ryan Blakney tossed him, making him the first Yankees captain to be ejected since Don Mattingly in 1994.
From the dugout, Anthony Rizzo shouted, “That’s the softest [expletive] I’ve ever seen!” Aaron Boone charged out to defend his man. Fans jeered Blakney and then cheered when Alex Verdugo’s foul ball nicked him.
After the game, cooler heads prevailed. Boone calmly reiterated that the ejection was the wrong call, especially given that Judge was walking away. Judge expressed his surprise but noted that he always tries to be respectful. Rizzo said he had a lot of sympathy for the hard work umpires do.
In fact, the only important figure we didn’t hear from was Blakney himself, and that’s because crew chief Alan Porter was dispatched to speak to a pool reporter. One problem: When asked if Blakney told him what Judge said to warrant the ejection, Porter said, “No, not yet.”
Thanks for the insight, Blue.
In the grand scheme of things, one ejection isn’t a big deal — especially in a victory — but it does highlight the lack of accountability by umpires that’s proved especially troublesome of late.
The most egregious incident happened last month when Hunter Wendelstedt ejected Boone for something a fan said from the stands. The Mets lost a game last week after a controversial play at the plate, and the only explanation was a prepared statement emailed to reporters — no follow-up questions possible. Angel Hernandez’s strike zone continues to be one of life’s great mysteries, and last week, Max Scherzer used his first rehab appearance to tell the assembled media that maybe there should be a better system for evaluating umpires.
"We need to rank the umpires," Scherzer said then. "Let the electronic strike zone rank the umpires. We need to have a conversation about the bottom — let's call it 10% — whatever you want to declare the bottom is and talk about relegating those umpires to the minor leagues."
One thing’s certain: Having more checks in place can only benefit baseball. In a way, it could benefit umpires, too. Because the thing is, umpiring is a very challenging, largely thankless job.
After the game, Rizzo noted that these men spend weeks and weeks on the road. Every move is scrutinized, and things like MLB Gameday, or even a regular old broadcast, do a very good job of pointing out mistakes large and small. There’s an online database called “Ump Scorecards” that ranks performances based on accuracy and consistency, and an accompanying X account that points out pivotal missed calls.
Scherzer’s proposed relegation system could go a long way toward cleaning up the game and maybe stem the seemingly inevitable shift to full-time robo-umps. Barring that, MLB could simply do a better job of publicly censuring umpires when they’re clearly in the wrong, such as in Wendelstedt’s case. At the very minimum, umpires who make controversial calls should be around to answer a few measly questions.
The most we got Saturday was Porter saying that “apparently Aaron did not agree with the pitch and said something that you shouldn’t have said.”
Had Judge said anything to Blakney previously that could have perhaps hastened his trigger finger? “I have no idea,” Porter said. “This was all about one thing that he said and he can’t say.”
Even though the YES mics caught what Judge said — euphemistically, that the call was horse manure — it’s notable that Judge didn’t verbally attack Blakney personally. Sure, he was frustrated, but you would be, too: Since his first full season in 2017, Judge is second only to Mookie Betts for most blown strike calls, according to Baseball Savant.
“It’s very surprising, especially in a 5-3 game, late in the game, battling a 3-2 count,” Judge said. “I was kind of walking away saying my piece. I’ve said a lot worse . . . I’ve always had [the umpires'] back because it’s tough back there. For that to happen that way, that’s what I’m most upset about.”
It wasn’t merely his first ejection in the majors. It was his first ejection ever.
“He’s one of the nicest guys in the league,” Rizzo said of Judge in the postgame on-field interview (this was before he found his Zen more than an hour later and complimented the hard work the umpires do). “Everyone knows it — the respect he shows to the umpires. It was the umpire being a little sensitive there. I mean, I’m sure he’s going to say he’s right because they’re always right.”
They’re not, though, and there should be more accountability for when they get it wrong.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
