SEATTLE (AP) -Denard Span is only 24, so he’s still learning about life in the major leagues – including how you can get ejected from a game that has already ended.
The Twins’ dynamic rookie leadoff hitter was angry at being called out on strikes against Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez to end Sunday’s tense game at Los Angeles. Span usually doesn’t show much emotion, but figured, “What the heck? The game’s over.”
So Span threw his batting helmet, and plate umpire Brian Gorman threw him out of a game that was no longer a game.
Now, Span is waiting for a possible fine from the commissioner’s office over his quirky ejection.
“I saw him throw his finger (toward the showers) and I thought, ‘What are you talking about? I’m going to the showers anyway,”’ Span said Monday. “You’re going to throw me out and the game’s already over? You’re cool.”
He said he was still angry over what he perceived as a rookie getting the short end of not just the final strike call, but also one immediately before it.
“He’s K-Rod, you know. I’m Denard Span,” he said, adding hopefully those close calls will be going his way in 10 years.
Span said “he lost it for a good couple minutes,” and that he had never been that mad in a game. He even surprised some teammates with his uncharacteristic outburst.
He regrets having thrown the helmet, at least around home plate instead of toward his dugout. That’s all Gorman needed to toss him. The two men couldn’t hear what they were yelling at each other because the home crowd of 40,011 were roaring over the Angels’ come-from-behind win and Rodriguez’s 50th save.
Oh, yeah, that’s another thing that chapped Span.
“With him getting help from the umpire, that’s tough,” Span said of Rodriguez, who is nearing Bobby Thigpen’s single-season record of 57 saves. “He doesn’t need help. He’s got 49 saves. He doesn’t need help getting 50.”
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire pulled Span aside Monday and reminded him a team in a pennant race doesn’t need its catalyst getting ejected.
“I told him you don’t want to get in a situation where you throw your helmet down. What if he throws it and it flies up and hits someone?” Gardenhire said. “Then you’ve got something (serious). … Let me do the umpires thing.”
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