Barnstormers announcer ejected by umpire

The beautiful thing about baseball is that if you watch enough games, you will often see something that you have never seen before on a baseball field.

Case in point: during Sunday’s Intercounty Baseball League game on Sunday at Fergie Jenkins Field, Chatham-Kent Barnstormers PA announcer Jeff Hopman was ejected from the game.

Hopman’s crime? Just like he has done in three previous home games, Hopman used a sound clip of someone saying “bruh” after a questionable ball-strike call at home plate. The umpire ejected Hopman.

Is a baseball umpire allowed to do this? It has precedent. Organists have been thrown out of minor league games for playing Three Blind Mice when the umpires took the field. Mascots and even between-innings singers have been ejected previously.

Official Baseball Rule 8.01(d) grants umpires the discretion to eject any participant “for objecting to decisions or for unsportsmanlike conduct or language.

Is a PA announcer a participant? That’s a grey area. However, umpires have rule 8.01(c) to fall back on, “Each umpire has authority to rule on any point not specifically covered in these rules.”

In the early 1990’s, ump Bob Davidson once tossed Youppi!, the Expos mascot, in a game against the Dodgers because Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda did not want Youppi! to stand on top of the Dodger dugout. For the record, we will take Youppi over Tommy Lasorda any day.

Hopman’s ejection was a memorable highlight during the Barnstormers’ 13-3 loss to Guelph, as the Barnstormers fell to 2-3 on the season.