Cade Cavalli Insists There Was Nothing Racist About Calling Willson Contreras “Boy”

Cade Cavalli, pitcher for the Washington Nationals, used "boy" Tuesday night in a taunt directed at Willson Contreras of the Boston Red Sox.

Cavalli had caught Contreras looking at a third strike, and shouted, "Sit down, boy," loud enough for it to be caught on the television broadcast.

Contreras, a Venezuelan man six years Cavalli's senior and with more than 40 times as many MLB games under his belt, took it exactly as intended.

In the ensuing brouhaha, Contreras whipped off his batting helmet, fumbled it, recovered his own fumble, and then fired the helmet toward Cavalli.

It was not Contreras's best throw: The helmet bonked off of Andrés Chaparro, a bystander and Contreras's countryman.

Contreras was ejected.

Cavalli, who provoked Contreras, jawed with him, and beckoned him forward, did not physically engage, and was allowed to continue pitching.

This part of it really bothered Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy, who took up his player's case with the umpires and was ejected. "I felt like the comment made—'Sit down, boy,' at the top of your lungs—was part of what caused that to happen," Tracy explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeVYsNaUEp4&t=315s">after the game. "As I understood after that happened the people that they chose, that were gonna leave the game, I just felt like the other pitcher should've been one of them, too.

That was my biggest complaint, there, was why is he still in the game?"