By Rebecca Risch '25
Introduction
The ejection is a longstanding staple of baseball’s rule enforcement and the sport’s culture. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, in 1889, Major League Baseball’s rules were changed to permit umpires to eject players from the game for rule violations. Previously, only fines were allowed as punishment for such players (Vincent). According to MLB’s Office Baseball Rules, specifically rule 8.01(c), “each umpire has the authority to disqualify any player, coach, manager, or substitute for objecting to decisions or for unsportsmanlike conduct or language, and to eject such disqualified person from the playing field”. Ejections are relatively frequent events in MLB games. In the 31,585 games played from 2011-2024, excluding the shortened and altered 2020 season due to COVID, there were 2,632 ejections. These took place across 2,081 games, averaging 1.26 ejections per game. Managers and players accounted for roughly 45% of ejections each, while coaches made up the remaining 10%. Overall, 6.5% of games in this modern era of baseball featured at least one ejection.
Ejections are more commonplace in baseball than in other sports, likely due to the established practice of arguing with umpire decisions. In the National Football League, players can be “disqualified” for flagrant unnecessary roughness, illegal contact with a player who has made a fair catch, impermissible use of the helmet, roughing the passer, kicker, or holder, striking, kicking, tripping, or kneeing opponents, etc. If a player or non-player personnel is penalized twice in the same game for unsportsmanlike conduct, they are automatically disqualified (“2024 NFL Rulebook: NFL Football Operations.”). In the National Basketball Association, players, coaches, trainers, or other team bench people may be ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct, penalties also known as technical fouls, and will automatically be ejected for committing multiple “techs” in a game (“Rule No. 12: Fouls and Penalties.”). In the National Hockey League, “game misconduct penalties” result in suspension of a player for the remainder of the game. These infractions include fighting violations, abuse of officials, stick infractions, and physical infractions (“Official Rules 2024-2025.”). All that to say, NFL, NBA, and NHL ejectees typically commit some sort of physical violation or flagrant offense to be disqualified. While the MLB includes similar qualifications for ejection, like unsportsmanlike conduct or physical violence, the majority of ejections occur by the ejectee objecting to the umpire’s on-field ruling. The umpire’s decision to eject is up to a bit more subjective discretion, as opposed to penalizing clear infractions.
Retrosheet reports on all historical ejections from 1889 to present day (“Ejections.”). Baseball has come a long way since then, it was a different game in the 1800s. Some comical reasons for antique ejections include “fighting with fan”, “threw bat at pitcher”, “hid baseball from umpires”, and “threw dirt”. Baseball is much more procedural (and some would argue tame) today. As previously mentioned, the most common reasons for ejections are arguing with the umpires over their decisions. These often regard the count, third strike calls, foul tips, check swing calls, baserunning calls, balk calls, replay rulings, fair/foul calls, and hit-by-pitch calls. When the score is close, umpire decisions can absolutely determine the outcome of a game. When managers or players strongly oppose a call, they may lose their composure and display their temper, taking it out on the umpire. Some umpires are more lenient, while others are stricter and less tolerant of inflammatory behavior and verbal abuse.
However, the most unique aspect of baseball’s ejection history is not the frequency, nor the subjectivity, but the perceived intentional ejections. It is widely understood in baseball that when a team is either losing, underperforming, or playing with low energy, the manager may pick a fight with the umpire, often in a loud and exaggerated fashion. In situations where the manager might normally overlook a questionable call, they may choose to argue dramatically in an attempt to “fire up” the team, rally them together, and shift the game’s momentum. The enduring question, which has never been conclusively answered with advanced statistics and analytics, is: do ejections affect the course of the game? As a measurable proxy, I will be asking: do ejections affect game score?
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