Minor League Baseball manager Rafael Valenzuela had an all-time meltdown during Wednesday night’s game between the Bowling Green Hot Rods and the Hickory Crawdads. He replaced the home plate umpire with a trash can in reference to his awful calls behind the dish!
It was a hilarious sequence of events that marks the best ejection of the year thus far.
Valenzuela is the second-year skipper for the High-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. His team was losing by three runs in the top of the fourth inning when he lost his temper.
The 36-year-old did not appreciate how the home plate umpire was calling balls and strikes, and he made sure to let him know. Valenzuela repeatedly chirped him from the dugout until enough was enough.
After a moment of yapping back and forth, the umpire gave Valenzuela the boot and sent him back to the clubhouse for an early shower. He did not appreciate the ejection.
Valenzuela stormed onto the baseball field to give the umpire a piece of his mind. It was a relatively cordial exchange at first! There was some arguing and yelling, but the umpire stood strong and held his own.
That only made Valenzuela even more angry. The lack of response led him to kick dirt on home plate in a showing of disrespect. That was not all!
He took it to the next level by placing a trash can where the umpire would typically stand before leaving the field for good. Valenzuela made sure to get the most of his ejection.
Bowling Green manager Rafael Valenzuela just got ejected from tonight’s game and his reaction is a mix of sandbox play and chaos. pic.twitter.com/qjph9zoyl1
— Geoff Pontes (@GeoffPontesBA) August 22, 2024
Baseball managers get thrown out of games all the time. They usually get in the umpire’s face and give him a piece of their mind before exiting the field. Rarely does it escalate to the antics of Wednesday night.
Rafael Valenzuela’s performance was not the greatest of all-time. Lou Piniella, Rocco Baldelli, Earl Weaver and many others were even more entertaining. However, this is the best ejection we have seen this season on the Major League or Minor League Baseball level without question!