Tuesday, May 08, 2012

IT IS BASEBALL, RIGHT?

Phillie pitcher Cole Hamels plunked rookie Bryce Harper in the back. It happens. But Hamels came out and admitted that he did it on purpose, to "welcome" Harper to the big leagues. That has started all kinds of discussions about whether or not it was right, should he have admitted it and what should be done about it.

The League was kind of forced to do something, but what? So they suspended Hamels for five games, but since he's a pitcher, it basically corresponds to his next scheduled start. ...so, nothing.

What happened in the game? Hamels hit Harper. Harper went quietly to first. His next time up, he singled, went to third and then stole home on a pick off attempt to first. The next time Hamels came to the plate, the Nationals pitcher hit HIM.  Problem solved: it's baseball.

Washington GM Mike Rizzo, however, went ballistic, calling Hamels "...classless, gutless...a chicken(bleep) act." He also said it wasn't 'old school,' as Hamels claimed. It looked like it to me. but maybe because I'm old school, too.  Classless and gutless is when you hit someone to intimidate him because you can't get him out, when you don't have enough talent to get by on skills alone.

There were plenty of intimidators when I first started watching baseball back in the fifties (Did I just admit to being that old?). Guys like Don Drysdale, LA Dodgers, who admitted intimidation was 50% of his game.  Early Wynn of the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, who would throw at his own mother...but only if she was crowding the plate.  Legend has it the Wynn once hit his own kid in a Father-Son game, because, "...he was swinging too aggressively."  (More on this later)

I guess what I'm saying it that Mike Rizzo ought to go back to signing checks and let the players take care of business on the field..

## ESPN is doing a series on concussions in football. I'm watching it but I wish I wasn't.  It very upsetting to hear about players like Junior Seau committing suicide because of the long-term effects of concussions. To watch players in interviews who can't remember the questions, who need to have their GPS programed with their home address because they sometimes can't recall how to get home. It's very sad.
One former player once said (tongue-in-cheek) that the way to prevent concussions is to ban helmets...and maybe shoulder pads.  In the meantime, over 1500 former players are suing the NFL because, they say, the NFL knew about the problems and refused to reveal that information to the players. Congress should be focusing on this instead of trials about perjury.

***THEY SAID IT***
How bad was Early Wynn?
"That s.o.b. is so mean he would $^#&ing knock you down in the dugout." - Mickey Mantle
"I usually stick out my hand and hope he puts the ball in it. Except the one time when I went out to take him out of a game. I stuck out my hand and he hit me right in the stomach with the ball." - Al Lopez
Here's what Wynn himself had to say:
"A pitcher will never be a big winner until he hates hitters."
"I've got a right to knock down anybody holding a bat."

"Reliever Guillermo Mota was suspended 100 games for a banned substance.  Considering that his ERA is 5.06,  maybe Mota’s defense is that  with a 5.06 ERA whatever he was taking sure wasn’t performance enhancing."  -- Janice Hough
"The European Chess Union is imposing dress codes preventing women from showing cleavage—like no shirts unbuttoned past the top two. So is undoing a third button an illegal opening move?"  -- RJ Currie   (Raise your hand if you thought you'd ever see a chess reference here)
"Cornerback Janoris Jenkins, the Titans' first-round draft pick, has two marijuana arrests, a bar-fight arrest and four children with three women among his credits. Or as NFL talent scouts prefer to call it, a modern-day triple threat."  -- Dwight Perry
"Alex Rodriguez has passed Willie Mays on the RBI list. Isn't that like Kate Smith being passed by Lady Gaga?"  -- Bill Littlejohn

CP-


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