Nico Hoerner gets ejected by Derek Thomas. Photo credit: Maruqee Sports Network
MLBBy Sam Neumann on

Sometimes, umpires don’t have very good days.

For the crew responsible for the Detroit Tigers-Chicago Cubs series this past weekend, it wasn’t a very good three-game series. A clunker, if you will. And rather than spotlighting two of Major League Baseball’s top teams, the series quickly devolved into a full-fledged ump show.

Saturday belonged to Doug Eddings, and not in a good way. According to Umpire Scorecards, Eddings posted a called strike accuracy of just 80 percent. That means eight of his 40 called strikes were actually balls.

Things didn’t spiral quite as badly on Sunday, at least not by the numbers. Derek Thomas graded out better behind the plate. But his strike zone wasn’t the story; his fuse was.

Thomas ejected Cubs middle infielder Nico Hoerner for arguing balls and strikes. Based on the quick hook, you’d think he said the magic word, but based on what he told reporters and what he was caught saying by Marquee Sports Network’s mics — which we know Jason Benetti would love — it was nothing nefarious.

As it turns out, Thomas tossed Hoerner for saying, and we quote: “You’re having a really bad day.”

“I don’t think it’s really that often you can verbatim say to the press afterward what got you thrown out,” Hoerner said.” I said, ‘You’re having a really bad day.'”

That was it.

Here, and see for yourself.

Even Cubs’ manager Craig Counsell was perplexed.

“That’s nothing… You gotta be kidding me!”

It’s not every day you get a player straight-up owning why they got tossed. Most keep quiet or sugarcoat it to avoid fines for calling out umps, but Hoerner didn’t hesitate to say exactly what he said. Now, Major League Baseball might not love that kind of honesty, but at least he was upfront, and the audio matched his words.

At least he didn’t call for the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS), sort of like the Atlanta Braves announcers did on Sunday. But tapping his helmet would’ve been more deserving of an ejection.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann