During a game on Monday night, home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez took it as a slap in the face when Keon Broxton nonchalantly tossed his batting glove and hit him in the face in the second inning.
So, Gonzalez did the natural thing and tossed 29-year-old from the game.
Prior to the glove toss, the Seattle Mariners centerfielder took a called third strike from Gonzalez and took offense to the call.
Enraged at Gonzalez ruling a pitch that wasn’t all that close was a strike, Broxton flipped his bat, flung his helmet and then the gloves came off.
Keon Broxton got tossed for accidentally hitting the ump in the face with his batting glove. Yet another reason to be a no BGs guy. pic.twitter.com/BTe74DMKDL
— Ben Porter (@Ben13Porter) August 27, 2019
The umpire’s face is about the only thing Broxton has been able to his this season as he boasts a .174/.242/.287 slash line on the year and has just six home runs.
Talking about the incident after the game, Broxton told reporters that hitting Gonzalez with his glove was totally unintentional, USA Today reported.
“The odds of that happening are very slim. It’s really unfortunate it happened, but it’s all on me,” Broxton said. “That’s a lesson learned. I can handle things in a better way. I could have just walked to the dugout and put my stuff down and gone back out there, regardless of how I felt about the call. I take full responsibility for it. It’s a bad look. It’s a bad look for the organization and a bad look for me. I definitely regret doing it. I learned from it. Now I know. You just can’t do stuff like that. That’s not how baseball should be played anyway.”
The Mariners went on to lose the game 5-4 to the New York Yankees at T-Mobile Park.
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