SAN FRANCISCO — A split-admission doubleheader makes for a long day at the ballpark. San Francisco Giants special assistant Ron Wotus didn’t make it past the exchange of lineup cards.Wotus represented the Giants in Saturday’s pregame meeting with umpires and it became quickly apparent that tensions lingered from Friday night’s ejection of Giants manager Tony Vitello and right-hander Logan Webb. Wotus’ conversation with crew chief Alan Porter grew animated and Porter ejected Wotus, the longest-tenured coach in franchise history.Wotus, who is serving as a uniformed coach for home games this season, is eligible to return for the second game of the doubleheader against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Ron Wotus was ejected before the game following an exchange with Alan Porter 😅 pic.twitter.com/wLy6GNLpHO
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) August 29, 2026A night earlier in the third inning, Porter ejected Vitello for arguing a fair/foul call down the third-base line. It was Vitello’s fifth ejection of the season as well as his second in a three-game span, continuing what has been a difficult transition as the former University of Tennessee coach seeks to build a rapport with umpires.The Giants dugout became heated in the third inning Friday night when right-hander Blade Tidwell didn’t get the benefit of an apparent strike call against Lars Nootbaar, who then doubled to start Arizona’s five-run rally. During the big inning, Nolan Arenado hit a ground ball over third base that umpire Alex MacKay called fair. It was a non-reviewable call that could have gone either way; Vitello did not come onto the field to argue but yelled at Porter from the dugout rail after the inning was over while holding out his hands roughly a foot apart.Porter ejected Vitello, who then confronted him on the field and got nose-to-nose with him for several moments.Vitello said after the game that Porter “didn’t like that I didn’t go on the field to argue it.”“If I was going to try and get personal, I would have went to the third-base umpire, it was his call, but I wasn’t looking to get personal,” Vitello said.Once he engaged Porter on the field, Vitello said things “got personal real quick. Real quick.”In arguably four of Vitello’s five ejections, umpires have appeared to give him a quick hook and there have been several instances when umpires have treated either Vitello or his staff members in a way that would appear to drip with contempt. In a late-April series at Tampa Bay, Vitello said that umpire Hunter Wendelstedt made a comment about “rah-rah and pom-poms” while ejecting Giants director of pitching Frank Anderson, who was Vitello’s pitching coach at Tennessee.Vitello is the first major-league manager in modern history who was hired with no professional playing or coaching experience.Vitello acknowledged that the general tone of Friday night’s exchange with Porter suggested to him that there was some personal animosity at work.“I mean, I ain’t the smartest guy, but I can pick up on that,” Vitello said.“I don’t need any respect,” Vitello said later. “I haven’t earned it as much as some of those guys.”Webb, who drew his first career ejection, didn’t reject the suggestion that Vitello is receiving different treatment from umpires based on his non-traditional background.“I mean, it’s definitely possible, right?” Webb said. “It’s his first year. When I was a rookie, I was told by older players to not talk back, especially to older umpires. Maybe it’s something similar, but he’s a manager for a big-league baseball team. I don’t think he should be treated any different way.”Vitello’s five ejections are one behind Pittsburgh Pirates manager Don Kelly for the most in the major leagues this season.Wotus is not the first coach or manager to be given the thumb during a lineup card exchange. Most recently, former Giants manager Bob Melvin was thrown out of a game in 2024 for arguing a call from the previous night.
