By Mark La Monica
Intentionally retaliating by throwing at a baseball player during a game never made much sense to me.
Yeah, yeah, It's part of the infamous "unwritten rules" of baseball. There's a reason they're unwritten: No one wants to be credited with being the idiot who wrote down these dumb things.
On rare occasions, though, hitting a player would appear to be a smart move in terms of clubhouse loyalty. Example: Seattle's Jarrod Washburn slinging a fastball at the Yankees' Josh Phelps on Sunday afternoon seemed to be acceptable for the Mariners. Phelps threw a completely unnecessary shoulder into Seattle catcher Kenji Johjima on a play at the plate.
Johjima was on the first-base side of the plate trying to catch a throw, leaving the entire plate unblocked. Phelps avoided the plate and hammered into Johjima to make sure he wouldn't catch the ball and tag him out. It would have been a clean baseball play . . . had Johjima actually been in Phelps' way.
So, Washburn drilled Phelps in his next at-bat. Makes sense. Somewhere.
But then Scott Proctor, with two outs in the seventh, zipped a 95-mph fastball behind Yuniesky Betancourt. Proctor got tossed within seconds.
Some baseball people will claim that Proctor had to defend his teammates, had to let other teams know that they might get hit, had to assert his alpha-male status on the mound and gain the respect of his fellow players.
I say, "Great job, Proctor! Way to force Torre to use ANOTHER guy in the bullpen! Real smart, team player!"
Proctor needs to be intelligent. There's no reason to throw that pitch. Just get the out, shut your mouth and end the inning. Maybe then the bullpen won't completely implode every other game and perhaps the Yankees will dig their way out of AL East sub-mediocrity.
Why cause a stir and force the benches and bullpens to empty? If you're going to do that, at least throw a punch. Make it worth everyone's while. Don't just stand there and posture at the guy.
Instead, Proctor got tossed from the game, forced the manager (Don Mattingly replaced the ejected Torre) to go to another arm out of the bullpen and is now subject to a potential fine or suspension.
Not smart.
Here's another thing that's not smart: the bullpens jogging into the foray from left field. Why? If they're going to bother coming onto the field to defend their teammates, they could at least run.
Better yet, why don't the opposing bullpens just fight in the outfield? That would seem to make more sense if they were serious about defending their teammates. By the time they get to the infield, the umpires, coaches and players usually have everything under control. If the bullpens really wanted to mix it up, they'd go at it in the outfield.
Comments (4)
Well that was a very astute biased and uneducated article on the retaliation principles in the major leagues. I'll keep it short although I could write a thesis on this subject if needed be , however in this case a few choice words will suffice. Proctor retaliating? I say great job and about time that someone had a hair on his ass to go against the grain of torre's way of NEVER retaliating for hitting our players.No,No, don't give me the "way to force another guy from the bullpen" crap. Joe Torre uses the whole bullpen every chance he gets anyway AND he has overused Procter consistantly for the last two years. Yes Proctor holds the record for appearances and I'm sure he doesn't feel like getting a dead arm like all the other relievers that come and go because of Torre's napping in the dugout. The Yankees get hit constantly and are played against with more dirty plays than any other team . Its nice to see a pulse that has not been seen since their championship run which included defending Tino Martinez for getting beaned and made the team closer AND more driven as a TEAM. This is a competitive sport and if you want to stay off the plate as a catcher, well then you'd better make damn sure you're not close enough for my elbows because they are coming at you and THAT has always been part of the game. Nuff said. Procter, awesome job kid.
Ok. I want to know why baseball doesn't have instant replays, to be reviewed in case of any disputes. Will this idiot for an umpire get fined or punished, I mean he basically lost the game for the Yankees. What an idiot!!!
Proctor did well. Yanks need to find their balls. That will never happen if Phelps plays with edge and is left hanging by his teammates. Bullpens fighting in the outfield is brilliant. But how many of these jackasses actually want to go?
If the NBA has a strict rule against players leaving the bench during a scuffle than why are MLB players allowed to leave the bullpen when they are 400 feet away from the action? This never made any sense to me.