Umpire throws bat at player, a breakdown
What Happened
During a White Sox-Blue Jays game on June 9, 2021, rookie Alek Manoa was trying to escape the bottom of the first when a series of botched throws and a ball through the gap let Chicago push a run home. On the play at the plate, the home plate umpire bent down to clear a bat out of the way and accidentally smacked Jose Abreu in the knee with the barrel while Abreu was standing near the box. Abreu went down and players from both sides came over to check on him. Abreu played through it, hobbling on the banged-up knee before eventually grounding out.
Why This Matters
Umpires move bats and debris off the plate constantly, so this was a routine bit of housekeeping gone wrong. The accidental contact didn't change any call or trigger a rule, but it's the kind of freak moment that almost never gets caught on camera. The bigger baseball story sat in front of it: Manoa, making one of his earliest big league starts in 2021, watched his own defense come apart behind him with multiple dropped throws putting a runner in scoring position. That's the part that actually shaped the inning. Abreu, the reigning 2020 AL MVP, shaking off a barrel to the knee and staying in to hit shows how little a glancing blow really threatens a hitter once the adrenaline kicks in. The clip lives on because of the absurdity, not the consequence.
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Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Yusei Kikuchi. Teams: Blue Jays.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentsomething happened in this white sox
blue jays game that you're probably not
going to see again and it's brought to
you
by dugout mugs mlb baseball bats turned
into mugs
how about that we got manoa the rookie
on the bump trying to get through the
bottom of the first inning
one out already two outs all he's got to
do is throw that to vladio
no what happened there glad he says my
bad man my bad he says i know it's your
bad
because obviously it's no one else is
bad
and then he throws the next ball and
then again he's like what's going on and
lamb goes to second now he's in scoring
position
why is nobody catching the balls that i
throw and then we got a ball through the
gap and now lamb who just got the
scoring position by all those missed
catches he's running home and the throw
to home
hits him in the body he's safe but oh no
abreu what happened he's on the ground
he was on deck
everyone's going to check on him they're
like dude what happened are you okay so
this guy threw his bat at me they're
like the battery's like no the ump
like what do you mean the umpther is bad
at you they're like yeah these people
are sharing popcorn but
grandma is like wait i don't want any
popcorn i'm trying to figure out whoa
there it is there's the replay what
happened here
the umpire picked up the baseball bat to
get it out of the way
and hit a bray right in the knee with
the barrel
barrel percentage 100 that dude is the
only dude
looking at a bray you who notices it he
doesn't seem to really care though but
he's like that
what's going on over there and
everybody's like yeah yeah the ump just
threw the bat
at me and larussa comes over and he says
well do you want
your bat and he says yes and it's this
really young ump who's been in a lot of
videos before and i was trying to read
what he says and he just asked the
picture here like
do you want to throw do you want to
throw because we had a little timeout
because i hit him with the bat by
accident i'm up number 101.
don't give me any guff i'll throw bats
where i want to throw him and brady's
like oh i don't know dude because you
hit my knee and i didn't like it
now he's got a hit banged up knee fouls
that one off
swings and misses at that slider hobbles
a little bit takes that one
nice take puts this one in play and
panic says you know what dude i'll save
you some running
i'll save you some running i'll just
catch that you can walk gingerly
back to the dugout where you belong and
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