A Baseball Post
21 July 2010Being stuck at home most of the time now, I watch a lot more TV than I used to. Thanks to my parents I have this nice big screen TV to watch and one thing that provides me a little sanity is the Atlanta Braves. I haven’t missed many games this year. If you aren’t a baseball fan you may want to skip this post because it is a baseball rant.
Everyone gets frustrated at umpires from time to time but they mostly do a good job. But sometimes they screw up so badly you just want to scream.
Such was the case the other night in game two of the Braves – Brewers series.
In game one of that series Tommy Hanson hit Prince Fielder with a pitch and Fielder was obviously angry as he headed to first base. He glared at Hanson all the way down the line.
Now Hanson has hit more batters this year than just about anyone because he likes to come in on hitters. And Fielder is just the type of hitter a pitcher needs to come inside on. This is just part of the game. It was not an intentional hit batsman.
Now to game two. Late in the game Jonny Venters came on in relief and Fielder was the first batter he faced. His first pitch sailed over Fielder’s head, which isn’t too unusual for Venters. He can be a little wild the first few pitches. Here’s where the problem comes in.
The umpire immediately issued a warning to the Braves, which was totally unnecessary and uncalled for. Then, on the very next pitch, Venters attempted to go inside and managed to hit Fielder. The result, in addition to Fielder going to first base, was the immediate ejection from the game of both Bobby Cox and Jonny Venters.
Now I admit that it didn’t look good but the question is, was there any reason for Venters to be intentionally throwing at Fielder in the first place and the and the answer is no. I think everyone would agree that we don’t need teams retaliating against each other for perceived offenses and I understand why this warning rule is in place. But the problem is, umpires have to try and determine intent and they simply can’t.
But this story gets even worse. That night a Brewers pitcher was also warned, then a Braves batter hit and no ejection resulted! And finally, Bobby Cox was suspended for one game, which he served last night, and Jonny Venters was suspended for four games, which he is appealing.
Thankfully none of this has hurt the Braves in terms of win-loss record, at least so far. The Braves won last night without Bobby Cox in the dugout. Venters did contribute to the win last night since his suspension is on hold pending the appeal.
But the fact is, this was nothing like a just action and clearly it was applied unequally between the Braves and the Brewers. I personally believe the warning against the Brewers was also unwarranted but it was issued and no ejection resulted when Braves batter was hit. Something is just fundamentally wrong with this whole situation specifically and with the rule as written in general. Umpires cannot be expected to decide what a pitcher is thinking in the absence of clear evidence of that thinking and the simple fact that a batter was hit is NOT evidence of anything except that the ball got away from the pitcher. It is not, in and of itself, evidence or intent.
I have no idea whether Venters suspension will be lessened or overturned but four games is just way to much. I hope Major League Baseball will correct this injustice.
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July 21st, 2010 at 4:25 pm
It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out…ooh, bad pun! My son, Scott, is an avid Braves’ fan. He grew up in Richmond Hill, GA (my husband and I still live there) south of Savannah. He is living in Kennesaw now and attends KSU. He also has an incredible job at a store in Marietta called Better Baseball. He is having a blast and has met many former Braves, including Jave Lopez, and also the General Manager! He attends games as often as he can. We are really hoping that this is THE year!
August 8th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
I went to several games last year and look forward to going to more once we get back to Marietta in a couple of weeks. Of course, going to a game is a very different thing with my vision. I went to a Charleston Riverdogs game and had a difficult time telling where the ball was hit. It’s definately eariser to watch in HD on a big screen TV but there’s just something about being there that can’t be duplicated on TV.