Gabe Kapler Gets Ejected by Joe West, a breakdown
What Happened
In a 2019 game, Giants first-year manager Gabe Kapler got tossed by veteran umpire Joe West after a back-to-back home run sequence off pitcher Wilmer Font, with Maikel Franco and Brad Miller going deep on consecutive at-bats. After the second homer and some animated celebration, West issued warnings to both benches. Kapler argued there was no reason to warn the Giants, since nothing had actually happened to warrant it, and West rang him up almost immediately. It was just the second ejection of Kapler's managing career.
Why This Matters
Warnings exist to defuse a brewing beanball situation, but here the Giants felt sucker-punched: no batter had been hit, no pitch had sailed at anyone's head, yet West preemptively warned both dugouts. That's the heart of Kapler's complaint. Once a manager argues a warning that aggressively, an umpire as established as West, in the league since 1976, isn't going to back down to a rookie skipper. Kapler took over the Giants in 2019 after his run in Philadelphia, so he was still building his reputation with crews. West, nicknamed Country Joe, has long been one of the most polarizing and quick-trigger umps in the game. This was the kind of clash that turns into a one-sided shouting match fast, and Kapler lost it in record time.
At 1.3M views it ranks 206th of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, landing in the top 13% of the catalog.
Key Moments
Who / What Is Involved
Players: Gabe Kapler, Joe West. Teams: Giants.
Key Terms Mentioned
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentGabe Kapler got ejected for the second
time in his major league career and it
came after this a home run by Franco
there off Wilmer font one of the funnier
name oh then Brad Miller comes up and he
hits a home run right after that another
blast by guy who's not really a home run
hitter and he gets pretty Weasley with
it tongue out pretty gross I don't know
old man pitching coach comes out 82
years old he goes well you better just
[ __ ] hit the notes going ahead
curveball to open it up curveball again
these are for show and bam that's what
you get when you hire an 82 year-old
pitching coach he's like okay this lady
just life flashed before our eyes she's
like on a horror ride Joe Westgate both
teams warnings and that's the major
issue Kapler as like what for Joe asses
don't come back here he's like what the
hell are you waiting warning us for
you're gone I told you not to do that
throwing me out already
what the [ __ ] Joe there's no reason to
warn us right there what the [ __ ] did we
do
why are were you why are you warning us
that is [ __ ] horrible what the [ __ ]
did we do to deserve a [ __ ] warning
Joe that's [ __ ] crazy
oh that is [ __ ] atrocious so many
pitches inside Joe you know what that is
[ __ ] irresponsible man I like the
young rookie manager trying to reason
with Joe West who's been in the enemy
for like 50 years as [ __ ] terrible oh
yes it is it's [ __ ] terrible Joe it's
just writing his notebook why are you
looking at me
that's [ __ ] that's [ __ ] right
news no look just threw out Gabe Kapler