Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons Keeps Up His Hectic Ejection Pace
John Gibbons was ejected for the sixth time in the last nine weeks on Friday.
It didn’t take long for John Gibbons to receive his most recent ejection. With two out and no one on base in the bottom of the first inning on Canada Day, Toronto’s Edwin Encarnacion was called out by Vic Carapazza on a 3-2 cutter that appeared to be off the plate. In fact, replays showed the pitch was off the outer edge of the plate and the call was incorrect.
Encarnacion was not happy with the call and made his displeasure known. He was very quickly ejected by Carapazza, which brought Blue Jays’ manager John Gibbons out of the dugout. Gibbons got the thumb also. Later in the game, the Blue Jays’ Russell Martin was thrown out of the game after complaining on a strike call during an at-bat that ended with a strikeout.
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The three Blue Jays ejected by Carapazza bumped his season ejection total up to five, moving him to within one thumb of the current leader, Dale Scott. Three of Scott’s ejections were Blue Jays and two were Rangers. Those five ejections came during the Odor—Bautista scuffle on May 15. Scott’s other ejection was almost a week later when he tossed Yunel Escobar for arguing a called strike three on May 21.
As a team, the Blue Jays lead baseball with 14 ejections. They have more than the other four AL East teams combined. The Pittsburgh Pirates are second in baseball with nine ejections. Manager Clint Hurdle has three of those nine and is tied with Robin Ventura in times getting tossed, both with half the number of ejections that Gibbons has.
No one can compete with John Gibbons. Not only has Gibbons been ejected six times this year, all six have come since April 27. That’s six ejections in the 61 games the Blue Jays have played over the last nine weeks, and Gibbons was also suspended for three of those games.
The most glorious week of ejections for John Gibbons was back in May. On Sunday, May 15, Gibbons was ejected in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes. This was before the epic Rougned Odor punch of Jose Bautista in the eighth inning. Gibbons was ejected again the following day for arguing a strike three call in the bottom of the fourth inning. He then served a three game suspension because he had come on the field during the Odor—Bautista scuffle in Sunday’s game.
He did not get ejected on Friday or Saturday, but got another thumb on Sunday for protesting when Phil Hughes threw two pitches very close to Josh Donaldson. Overall, in a span of eight games, Gibbons managed two games, was ejected twice, and served a three game suspension. The day after his third ejection and sixth missed game in the last eight, Gibbons had to re-introduce himself to the team.
Gibbons now has 38 ejections in his career, which is still 12 away from reaching the top 15 all-time for manager ejections. Bobby Cox towers over everyone with 161 ejections, followed by the legendary John McGraw, with 132. Bruce Bochy is the leader among active managers and is 12th all-time, with 61 ejections.
When it comes to ejections as a rate-stat, namely games managed per ejection, Gibbons compares favorably to some of the managers on the upper half of the top-15 list. Paul Richards is sixth all-time in ejections, with 80, but his rate of one ejection per 23 games managed leads all managers in baseball history. Earl Weaver (1 ejection per 27 games) is next, followed by Frankie Frisch and Bobby Cox (1 per 28 games). John Gibbons would slot in at fifth, with one ejection per 31 games managed.
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If Gibbons continues on his current pace, he has a shot to catch the single-season high for Bobby Cox, which is 11 in 2001. That isn’t the all-time single-season record, though. John McGraw was thrown out of 13 games in 1905 and Paul Richards took an early shower in 12 games in 1956. If Gibbons wants to catch McGraw, he’ll need to up his season pace a bit, or maybe have another three-ejection week like he had back in the middle of May.