Watch: Nico Hoerner Ejected for Telling Ump ‘You’re Having a Really Bad Day’
More than one person thought Saturday’s game would see a few ejections due to home plate umpire Doug Eddings’ egregiously bad zone, but the real ump show took place on Sunday. That’s when Derek Thomas called a terrible strike three on Nico Hoerner, who took issue with the call and was ejected almost immediately. Craig Counsell came out to defend his second baseman and was subsequently tossed as well.
You often hear about “magic words” that will get you run by the ump, or maybe you’ll see a player gesturing at a spot to show the ump where the ball was. Hoerner did nothing of the sort, and he didn’t even curse. Nor did he use language that could be considered mildly abrasive. You’ll often hear players or managers joke about what they said to get tossed, or maybe they have to clean it up for the media.
“I don’t think it’s really that often you can verbatim say to the press afterwards what got you thrown out,” Hoerner said after the game. “So I said, ‘You’re having a really bad day.'”
Seriously, that’s it. You can check the audio of the game below to confirm it.
Here is the audio from Nico Hoerner’s ejection during today’s game. https://t.co/XnAiRBhxBm pic.twitter.com/ic3l4tB8hk
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) June 8, 2025
This might be softer than J.T. Realmuto being thrown out of a spring training game when home plate ump Randy Rosenberg thought the catcher was showing him up by dropping a ball exchange. Bad calls are part of the game, ideally one that will be phased out soon by the ABS challenge system, but umps need to own their mistakes. Thomas may have been itching for a fight after his colleague had called such a bad game, which makes this even worse.
People don’t pay to see umpires, especially not those who turn into Charmin Ultra Soft when a player very deservedly calls them out.
