Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver had a little fun before the Kansas City Royals hosted the Seattle Mariners Sunday, facing off in an “anthem standoff.”
This went on for quite some time, to the point where teammates began bringing the pair water and towels, and the Royals mascot wandered over to check on the situation.
But when the Royals took the field to begin warming up, home plate umpire Adrian Johnson had seen enough. He began motioning Ray and Weaver off the field.
After Johnson made a couple of tries to shoo them into their dugouts, and just as Mariners ace Ray seemed to “win” the standoff over the Royals reliever, the home plate umpire ejected the pair.
We got an old fashioned National Anthem standoff! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/1FtR7kiTdV
— MLB (@MLB) September 25, 2022
Ray and Weaver, former teammates with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2019 and 2020, will think twice before they do something like this again, although their bizarre ejections did make Twitter more interesting for a while.
“Don’t let football distract you from today’s anthem standoff that ended with ejections for Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver,” tweeted BetRivers Sportsbook.
don't let football distract you from today's anthem standoff that ended with ejections for Robbie Ray and Luke Weaverpic.twitter.com/vNS2inxp7O
— BetRivers Sportsbook (@BetRivers) September 25, 2022
It's all about the game within the game 🧐
We have an classic ANTHEM STANDOFF.
🎥 @MLBpic.twitter.com/nePz0rFQVv
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 25, 2022
umps are on absolute trip lately pic.twitter.com/1id3LEHwor
— Jordan Cicchelli 🤍 (@jordancicchelli) September 25, 2022
This national anthem standoff lasted so long that umpires had to get involved 😂😅pic.twitter.com/kTIoJ2g2tN
— Yahoo Sports MLB (@MLByahoosports) September 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/Matttt_007/status/1574103867566206976
It makes one wonder if there hasn’t been a secret directive sent down by the MLB office to umpires to crack down on these anthem standoffs, which have become a thing lately.
[MLB.com]
