Twins Manager Ejected for Profane Argument Over Call He Probably Couldn’t See

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli argues a call after being ejected.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli argues a call after being ejected. / Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images

The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 on Thursday night at Target Field. Detroit took the lead in the top of the 11th inning on a sacrafice fly. Minnesota's Ryan Jeffers led off the bottom half of the inning and got punched out on a foul tip that home plate umpire John Bacon thought Detroit catcher Dillon Dinger caught.

Jeffers thought the ball hit the ground before finding its way into Dinger's mitt. Bacon disagreed and Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli ran out to argue on Jeffers's behalf. Within a few seconds and just two F-bombs he was ejected.

There was no need for a lip reader as microphones clearly picked up Baldelli shouting, "There's no f------ way. You f------ it up."

After he was tossed, Baldelli continued to argue, kicked some dirt and threw his hat before heading back to the dugout and into the locker room.

Upon review of the slow-motion replay... can you even tell if the call was correct? Dirt kicks up but it kind of looks like he caught it. Baldelli was most certainly going along with his player in this situation. In the end, it doesn't really matter if it was right or wrong. All that really matters is that this was an incredibly worthy ejection.


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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.