There's no crying in baseball, but there is whining. - Misfit's Blog

Misfit's Blog

There's no crying in baseball, but there is whining.

Posted on June 12, 2009 at 10:04 PM.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4255169

Just another piece that is contributing to the dumbing down of the league. Do you think managers or front office people were complaining to the commissioner after Nolan Ryan beaned someone? No, they just retaliated in whatever fashion they deemed appropriate.

For those of you reading this unwilling to click on the link, the story is basically the Yankees are complaining to Major League Baseball and lobbying for a suspension of Red Sox starter Brad Penny for hitting Arod with a pitch in last night's game. I don't know if the Red Sox have done the same given that nine Red Sox batters have been hit by Yankees pitchers in the eight games the two teams have played this year. If the Red Sox have then they're just as guilty here as the Yankees but since their manager doesn't whine on the radio we don't know. I don't see what Girardi has to complain about. Jason Bay alone has been hit twice and the first time looked intentional, the second was questionable (since it was Jose Veras doing the plunking). Arod was just the third Yankees batter to take one off the back and I find it hard to believe Girardi would privately refute the notion that his team had it coming.

This is a scenario were the teams should be able to police themselves. Its worked for a long time in baseball and it can still work. No balls that I can recall have been near anyone's head. I can't argue with MLB when someone gets suspended for throwing a ball at or near a batter's head. Pitchers should know that if that happens and it looks intentional they're going to receive a six game suspension. If a guy gets drilled in the backside with no warnings having been issued then there should be no discipline. If its clearly intentional then fine the guy, but a suspension is unwarranted. In that instance a suspension just tells me that MLB doesn't think their umpires are intelligent enough to determine intent since they're supposed to eject anyone they think is purposely hitting a batter. In the case of the Penny/Arod situation it was a 1-1 pitch and I don't see how MLB can say definitively that it was intentional (a previous story quoted Arod as saying he felt it wasn't intentional). We're all students of the game of course, and MLB knows as well as I do it was probably a purpose pitch intended to leave a bruise. Though I do feel it is worth mentioning that Hall of Famer and current Red Sox broadcaster Dennis Eckersley felt it was a case of the Red Sox wanting to attack Arod inside early and often, and if he got hit they didn't necessarily view that as a bad thing.

Which brings me to my last bullet and that has to do with managers complaining to the press about events on the field like this. Girardi has done this before and to me it just looks weak. I prefer to see the managers take the high road if baited by the press. If the players want to piss and moan to the media then so be it, but the manager should be above that. Let the players sort it out, though as manager he should make himself aware of what is going on. I know if I were managing a one-run game I wouldn't want a hot head pitcher intentionally putting a man on base for any reason.

I don't know what will come of this. I think at most Brad Penny gets a fine but a suspension would be a disgrace. It sets the precedent that anyone who beans a batter with a fastball is presumed guilty. The hit batsmen will always be a part of baseball. Suspensions should be used against those who aren't capable of handling the situation themselves. Guys like Vicente Padilla who have the gall to openly drill guys multiple times a game should absolutely be suspended (even though he wasn't). Or someone like Jose Mesa who admitted to the press he'll drill Omar Vizquel every time he faces him. Though I would also argue there's a time and a place for everything, and with punks like that, charging the mound doesn't sound like such a bad idea.