Baseball's Code of Retribution

They were curveballs. Ump used common sense.

 

Yeah, I mean, it really got out of hand fast. There were horses, and a man on fire, and Carl Crawford killed a guy with a trident.

 

I've got no problem with Shields plunking Crisp.

Did anyone pick up No. 13 Carl Crawford piling on Crisp and getting some good shots?

 

Whoever said the umps should have been more in command of the situation said it. This shit had been brewing for almost 24 hours. Anyone in their right mind who saw the slide Wednesday night knew Crisp would be plunked.

 

The "unwritten rules" are all well and good until MLB runs into some do-gooder -- and it will -- who doesn't understand them.

Then you're going to have somebody going to court for assault, and things are going to get ugly. See League, National Hockey.

I've always thought the "unwritten rules" are just a little too macho bullshit anyway.

 

I saw Crawford piling on. I must have missed the "good" shots.

 

Gomes didn't land the cheap ones he threw. Crawford did. If I were managing and I had some kid in the pen that was going back to Pawtucket in a day or two, I'd have had one stuck in Crawford's earhole.
Bad nove for Tampa Bay - the second inning of a game with first place on the line is not the place to prove their machismo. If Coco was daring them to throw at him, the Rays shouldn't have taken the bait. Coco's got a little gangsta in him - he knew if a pitch got anywhere near him, he was going to the mound.
Personally, I'd have dropped the bat, stood there and dared Shields to come up and swing at me. Would've spared Coco a suspension.
I point the finger at the umpires. Given all the woofing that took place on the field Wednesday night and in the media afterward, both benches should've been warned before the game.
Somebody mentioned the Pedro Martinez incident. Two things about that game: Pedro took a no-hitter into the ninth, and every time Brian Daubach came to the plate the rest of the game, Tampa threw at him - about eight ejections before it was done.

 

If I'm not mistaken Williams was the only baserunner until the ninth.

 

It was said this kind of non-behavior was the final straw for George Foster in New York after about four or five brawls. Even Gary Carter and 100-year-old bench coach Vern Hoscheit were out on the field during those fights.

 

Says a lot about the franchise that other teams actually give a crap about the Rays to deem their worthy of a fight. And to do that in Boston showed a certain degree of stones.

 

I don't see what the umps could have done in this situation. I know he couldn't necessarily foresee the brawl, but Shields got tossed after throwing at Crisp. If the umps had issued a pre-game warning, Shields would have gotten tossed after throwing at Crisp. End result was the same.

And Coco doesn't have any "gangsta" in him. His whole performance the last two nights was just weak.

And apparently the Youkilis-Manny shoving match had zero to do with the brawl and Manny's tardiness to the mound. ESPN.com has a story saying it stems from Manny protesting to Youk firing his bat/helmet after making an out, apparently something that has been an issue for a while.

 

I've never understood that whole charging-the-mound thing. Why couldn't the batter just let it go?
Is it because people tend to get a little testy when somebody fucks with their livelihood?