Cleveland Guardians: Terry Francona becomes meme in profanity-laced ejection

Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona doesn’t often get too heated on the field, though on Monday night, fans might have seen him at his most upset since becoming the manager back in 2013.

Francona was tossed in the seventh inning of Monday’s 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels after arguing with home plate umpire Ron Kulpa. Though “arguing” might be an understatement, as Francona unloaded a tirade of very visible profanities on Kulpa.

The argument stemmed from Francona being upset about not being able to challenge the call of whether or not Andrés Giménez was hit by a pitch on his left foot. Angels pitcher Ryan Tepera appeared to hit Giménez, and the Guardians’ second baseman immediately pointed to his foot, but Kulpa wouldn’t rule he was hit, and Cleveland apparently didn’t appeal for a review quick enough.

The umpiring crew would ultimately get together at Francona’s behest, to which they ruled that Cleveland could not in fact challenge the call.

Then the fireworks began. And as you can see from the video below, it isn’t hard to see how Francona instantly became a meme:

Amazingly, Angels interim manager Phil Nevin was ejected as well right after this, as he took umbrage with Kulpa not allowing Tepera to throw a warmup pitch after the five-minute delay.

Francona, of course, had a cheeky response to the altercation after the game:

“Gimi pointed to us, I think everybody could see it,” Francona said. “I put my hand up and I know they didn’t see me. They told me that Gimi was already engaged with the pitcher. I said ‘No, he wasn’t. He stepped out and pointed.’ After that I just checked on his family a little bit and he checked on mine.”

Now to the numbers: This was the 47th ejection of Francona’s managerial career, spanning time in Cleveland, Boston, and Philadelphia. It was also the 14th ejection of his Cleveland tenure and the third this season.