Brandon Tierney confirmed he was ejected from a Little League Baseball game, but he offers a very different story from the WFAN callers who broke it.
Last week, calls began trickling into WFAN’s morning show with Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti, claiming Tierney was tossed while coaching his son’s 10U baseball team. We initially passed on the story after the first couple of calls, especially with Tierney on vacation and unable to defend himself. But once Bill in Fort Lee, New Jersey called in with an alleged firsthand account of the incident prompting Boomer and Gio to spend a segment on the topic, I opted to write it.
This week, Tierney returned from vacation and took the opportunity to defend himself. Tierney admitted he “didn’t have a great moment,” but claimed the previously told story was filled with inaccuracies.
“The one thing that did bother me about the way it was reported,” Tierney said, “it made it seem like I treated a female ump differently. I didn’t. She wasn’t even the one who threw me out.”
While a caller did tell WFAN’s morning show that Tierney yelled at a woman umpire, our previous article on the topic made no mention of that claim. But Tierney still sought to make that correction, so there it is.
According to the caller who offered a firsthand account of the ejection, Tierney is an assistant coach, not the manager, which the WFAN host confirmed. Tierney said he doesn’t want to deal with inputting stats, sending emails or corresponding with league officials, he just wants to coach. But if you’re not a manager, you can’t question the call.
“When the game ended, there was a play at third base,” Tierney said. “We have the video, unfortunately there is no replay, he was safe, they called him out…my manager walks on the field to protest the call, he was safe. That was the end of the game. Automatically, aggressive ejection.”
Tierney reiterated he has the video of the call and the reaction, but doesn’t want to add fuel to the story by making it public.
According to Tierney, he was coaching first when the bad call to end the game was made at third, but since he’s not the manager, he can’t question the call. As Tierney was walking off the field to his team’s dugout, which was on the third base side, his manager was ejected.
“And you see me in the video,” Tierney continued. “Again, I’ll never post this, but trust me, my hands are up in the air. And what I’m saying to the ump is, ‘What’s going on?’ Because my buddy got ejected first. I didn’t even question the call.”
Tierney said the umpire saw him approaching and immediately yelled, “You’re out!”
“Ridiculous level of aggression,” Tierney claimed. “So, I got thrown out on a technicality. I’m exonerated. I didn’t do anything wrong. In the court of public opinion, honestly, I think I’m guilt free. I think I should be set free. It was not waiting in the parking lot to fight an umpire or in his face like Billy Martin screaming at him with spit flying out. It was, ‘Ah, Blue, you missed that.’ That was really it. I know you probably want a funnier, sexier version, I didn’t even really do anything wrong.”
As we noted in the first article, there are two sides to every story. According to the caller, Tierney is a good coach, but argued the call with language that shouldn’t have been used. But according to Tierney, he was thrown out before he even had the opportunity to say anything. Either way, this story is more entertaining than damning. Credit Tierney, for taking time to coach his son and a team of 10-year-olds, and credit him for caring about the gig.