Aaron Boone was thrown out early in Wednesday’s series finale against the Guardians after a catch by Aaron Hicks was reviewed and ultimately overturned despite the review seemingly coming long after Cleveland manager Terry Francona was allowed to challenge.
Speaking after the game, a comeback win by the Yanks, Boone was clearly still upset with the umpiring crew, calling them out for being influenced by the reaction of the crowd in Cleveland to go to the replay despite there not being a challenge anywhere near the necessary 15 second limit.
“Just that they conferred, and then after they conferred, then they go to him for the challenge. I just think they completely bailed him out,” Boone said. “I disagree still. We’ve been told all winter and spring that you have to be up and ready…it gets thrown up on the scoreboard, I’m not saying they looked up at the scoreboard, but obviously you could feel the emotion in the building.
Then it’s them getting together to get it right, then going to Cleveland and bailing them out.
“They got the play right. I will say that. But there is no way that the environment did not create, in my opinion, the end result.”
Boone said he called Major League Baseball after he was ejected, but didn’t get much of an answer to change his mind from the opinion that the crew was flat-out wrong and did not follow the new pace of play rules by reviewing a call that wasn’t challenged within 15 seconds.
“I’ve had a couple conversations already with the league about it,” Boone said. “I understand there are gonna be select plays where you circle up about it. that one was, if you had boots on the ground, everyone knows what happened. They didn’t challenge, and they weren’t ready to challenge, the umpires, I feel like on the emotion of the crowd, got together sorted it out, and gave them that opportunity, which I felt like was wrong.
“Everyone ran off the field and there was no question until all of a sudden, I feel like the emotion and the building and it being on the scoreboard, ‘Hey, let’s get together now.’ I felt like that was wrong.”
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Boone led the American League in ejections last season, and was tossed for the first time in 2023 on Wednesday. He told reporters that the team getting the win despite the controversial ruling helped ease the frustration a bit, but he was clearly still irate about how it was handled.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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