MANAGER GONE WILD: Blue Jays skipper John Schneider erupts and is tossed in Sacramento

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Four innings before his all-star break was scheduled to begin, Blue Jays manager John Schneider was in an extremely foul mood.

Emphasis on foul.

Schneider was tossed in the fifth inning of the Sunday finale of a three-game series in Sacramento after umpires ruled a mammoth blast off to the deepest parts of left field of the bat of Davis Schneider blast was foul.

It was certainly one of the most animated — and entertaining — ejections of John Schneider’s career as a Jays manager, three years to the day he was named as the interim replacement for his fired predecessor, Charlie Montoyo.

To say the skipper was fired-up, was definitely an understatement. With Foreigner’s Hot Blooded blaring over the speakers at Sutter Health Park, the minor-league stadium home to the Athletics this season, Schneider wanted a piece of the entire umpiring crew. And he roamed all the way from the Jays’ first-base dugout to third base, before being escorted to the visitors clubhouse beyond the outfield wall.

Specifically though, Schneider sure seemed to want a piece of third base umpire Brian Walsh, who made the call on the field.

With associate manager DeMarlo Hale and third base coach and Carlos Febles trying (with only minimal success) to hold Schneider back, the manager was hotter than the 30-degree Celsius temperatures in Sacramento.

The play was subject to a “crew review” by the umpiring staff, but with a shorter foul pole than most big league stadiums and sub-standard camera angles, the call on the field stood.

That’s when Schneider stormed out of the dugout looking for a piece of any man dressed in black that he could get to. First up was home plate ump Tripp Gibson, who quickly ejected the manager, but the fun was just beginning.

With two coaches and three umpires restraining him — and Febles dugging on Schneider’s hoodie — the Jays skipper certainly got his money’s worth for the showdown. Walsh, meanwhile, wanted no part of the fired-up manager and retreated from his usual position.

The ejection certainly was well-received in the Jays dugout, after a sleepy few innings in which the Athletics had jumped out to a 4-0 lead in a game they would eventually win 6-3, the third loss for Toronto in their past four games.

And it may especially have fired up Davis Schneider, the man John Schneider was sticking up for in the first place. Once the manager had reached the showers, Davis Schneider rocked A’s starter Jeffrey Springs for a 439-foot homer to centre field.

No video necessary on that blast, which was the Jays first base hit of the game.

After Sunday’s contest, the Jays were to enjoy a four-day break for the all-star game festivities in Atlanta. They’ll return to action with a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants at the Rogers Centre on Friday.