Angels Manager Reveals Why He Doesn't Argue With Umpires Despite Missed Calls

The Los Angeles Angels are working out a few kinks at this point in the season.

A recent point of contention came on Friday evening when Nolan Schanuel was at the plate with a 3-0 count and his team down by two runs. A walk would've loaded the bases, but instead, the umpire made the wrong call on a would-be ball four and Schanuel eventually flied out.

Especially with the recent displays of managers getting their money's worth at games, Ron Washington was asked about not arguing what was an obvious miss from the umpire.

“I didn’t come to the ballpark to get kicked out,” Washington said on Saturday. “Those umpires, they do a good job. I don’t think he did that on purpose. He had been calling a good game all night, and he made one bad call. Schanuel, I understand how Schanuel feels, but the at-bat isn’t over. That’s the mentality that mature players have, so he’s growing into that.”

When the manager leaves the dugout to argue balls and strikes, it's grounds for an automatic ejection.

Washington continued to defend his actions, or lack thereof, somewhat comedically and spoke on being conscious of wanting to stay in the dugout for the entirety of the games.

“I yell at the umpire,” Washington said. “When it’s time for me to get thrown out, as I keep telling you guys, I will. But one time, I’m gonna run out there and get thrown out and I’m gonna point to y’all, since y’all seem to think I need to get thrown out.”

Washington has yet to be ejected as manager of the Halos, but has been booted early 15 times in his eight seasons with the Texas Rangers. The legend of Washington's past dismay with umpires doesn't end there, as he once reportedly paid a $200 fine entirely in pennies after an argument sustained during spring training in 2014.

His response as to why he paid with 20,000 pennies was simple: "I didn't have my checkbook."

For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.