Baseball Ejections for Each of the Five Senses

Baseball players have been ejected for almost every reason, and we decided to give ourselves a topical challenge. Was there an ejection for sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch?

I. Sight

On May 28, 2002, the Seattle Mariners played the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Before the ninth inning began, the Rays’ production crew queued up a video highlight package built around the team’s one big inning that night. In the third, with two outs and the bases loaded, right fielder Ben Grieve worked a full count and drew a walk, driving in a run and prolonging the inning. The pitch was close, but with the benefit of replay and a superimposed strike-zone graphic, it looked like a strike. The Mariners’ manager, Lou Piniella, also thought the pitch looked strike-ish, and he came out to share these sentiments with the home plate umpire, John Shulock, who let the famously combustible Piniella say his piece. That would have been the end of it, but the next batter, catcher John Flaherty, hit a grand slam.

The eighth inning highlight package offered the fans a big-screen review of the whole sequence, including Grieve’s contribution: failing to swing at a strike and allowing Shulock to put him on base.

As Grieve’s free pass was shown on the big board, Piniella could not resist. “I told [Shulock] they were showing him up on the scoreboard,” Piniella said. “I told him to take another look at his calls.”