Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo was launched out from their 10-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday afternoon.
Umpire Joe West and his group weren’t content with him.
During the seventh inning, while Rizzo was viewing from the upper deck of the arena, umpire Hunter Wendelstedt unexpectedly could be heard on the broadcast saying, “you’re out,” while facing up toward the stands.
He at that point requested security to be called before cameras went to Rizzo — who was seen remaining solitary and not wearing a veil in a segment of the arena.
Rizzo, West stated, had been hollering at umpires from his suite, making statements like “you’re brutal.” Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the absence of fans in the arena, everything can be heard down on the field.
“I wouldn’t take that from a player. I wouldn’t take that from a manager,” West said, via the Associated Press. “If it was Donald Trump, I’d eject him, too. But I’d still vote for him.”
Microphones got somebody in the Braves’ dugout saying that Rizzo “doesn’t have a mask on.” Though masks are required due to the Covid pandemic, and Rizzo ought to have been wearing one, each shot of him appeared on the broadcast demonstrated that he was distant from everyone else in his area watching the game.
Many estimated that West had catapulted Rizzo for not wearing a mask — which would have been amazingly hypocritical, as West is on the record for being wary about the Covid and wasn’t wearing his mask accurately down on the field.
“If this game hasn’t gotten me by now, no virus is going to get me,” West said in July. “I’ve weathered a bunch of storms in my life. I’ll weather another one.”
Major League Baseball has begun an investigation into the occurrence with Rizzo, who signed a three-year expansion with the association on Saturday.
