Chatter between two teams on a baseball field is commonplace. But it’s not too often that a dig like the one Blue Jays manager John Schneider hurled toward the Yankees on Tuesday night is caught on camera.
The two clubs got into a shouting match about coaches standing in the correct spot on the field, prompting a brief stoppage in play as umpires sorted things out. Amidst the heated dialogue, Schneider shouted toward the Yankees dugout what appeared to be, “Shut up, fat boy.” By Wednesday, the target of said insult had been identified as Yankees assistant hitting coach Brad Wilkerson.
Wilkerson addressed this issue ahead of Wednesday’s game, saying that the entire incident has become something of a running joke in the clubhouse after the exchange was covered extensively by the New York media.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider was yelling at Yankees' third base coach Luis Rojas for leaving the coaches box. He also yelled "shut up fat boy" to someone on the Yankees side pic.twitter.com/MUUzhxzwND
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 16, 2023
“We try to stay in our dugout, some things happened over at third base and we were trying to defend our guys,” said Wilkerson, per The Athletic‘s Kaitlyn McGrath and Chris Kirschner. “I didn’t know anything about it until after the game, once I saw the write-up [in the New York Post], showing all over TV and all that kind of stuff that I guess it was pointed at me.”
Though Schneider said his comment was not aimed at anyone in particular, Wilkerson appears to have kept a light-hearted attitude about the entire ordeal.
