Because no one in baseball is allowed to have any fun, Texas Rangers third baseman Adrián Beltré was ejected from a game on Wednesday for moving the on-deck circle a few feet. Yes, that happened.
As he awaited his turn at the plate, Beltré began warming his swing up outside of the designated on-deck circle. Second base umpire and crew chief Gerry Davis noticed this and motioned for him to get closer to it. In response, the 38-year-old Dominican dragged the large mat that marks the circle closer to him, because he is a national treasure. Davis didn’t think so, however, and immediately ejected the third baseman from the game. Rangers manager Jeff Banister got tossed as well after he came out and argued the decision.
It’s not out of the ordinary for hitters waiting to come to the plate to warm up outside the designated on-deck circle. Sure, it’s against the rules, but thats a rule that is rarely ever enforced. To that point, Beltré’s former teammate Michael Young took to Twitter to speak out in support:
Beltré managed to tally 3 hits in the game before his premature exit, bringing his career hit total to 2,996. As Beltré inches towards being the 31st member of the 3,000 hit club–and one of the most fun members at that–this unnecessary ejection puts a damper on his march towards history.
After the game Beltré commented that “there was no need for that,” a sentiment fans immediately echoed on social media.
As for the game itself, it didn’t particularly matter what Beltré did; his team got crushed 22-10 by the Miami Marlins, continuing a mediocre season for the Rangers, who fell to 49-52 on the season.