It seems that every few weeks baseball's unwritten rule of retaliation rears it's ugly head. Yesterday it happened in Phoenix at a game between the Diamondbacks and Pirates. The recipient of the pay back pitch was the Pirates best player, last years' MVP and current All-Star Andrew McCutchen. He was hit in the spine with a fast ball from Arizona"s reliever Randall Delgado in the ninth inning with the Pirates leading by four runs with one out in the ninth.
Why was McCutchen so sure the pitch was a deliberate attempt to hit and injure him? It just so happens that Arizona's arguably best player Paul Goldschmidt was hit in his left hand a day earlier by a Pirates reliever. The result was a fractured bone which led the Diamondback power hitting first sacker to the disabled list for a stint. Now the Arizona team is not exactly playoff bound but who knows whether a hand fracture will heal correctly and how much hand strength will Goldy lose as a result of the fracture? How long will it take for him to recover to full strength and will it affect even next season. The point is that Goldy is a big part of the Arizona franchise's future.
No doubt Delgado remembered the public scalding that Arizona's GM Kevin Towers gave the team's pitching staff last season for not protecting their hitters and failing to retaliate. Recall that Arizona had an infamous and ugly incident with the Dodgers and Zach Greinke last year over a similar retaliation escalation. So there was little doubt in anyone's mind, least of all McCutheon, that Delgado threw a deliberate purpose pitch. Of course Kirk Gibson Diamondbacks' skipper chalked it up to the usual "the ball just got away from him" defense".
And what's next? Well Clint Hurdle the Pirates manager observed that "the game takes care of itself". That is diplomatic double talk that means we will take care of our players too and there's more to come whether today or the next time the teams meet.
But I'm always left wondering when somebody will come down so hard on these tit for tat unwritten customs that pitchers will be loathe to hurt someone because they will suffer a 50 game suspension. Or as Dick Hayhurst suggested a few months ago, law enforcement may have to step in and prosecute one of these guys for assault and battery to end the cycle of violence.
And to take the point one step further, you may enjoy A Pitch for Justice my novel that imagines a criminal prosecution for murder after a retaliatory pitch. http://www.amazon.com/Pitch-Justice-H...
Why was McCutchen so sure the pitch was a deliberate attempt to hit and injure him? It just so happens that Arizona's arguably best player Paul Goldschmidt was hit in his left hand a day earlier by a Pirates reliever. The result was a fractured bone which led the Diamondback power hitting first sacker to the disabled list for a stint. Now the Arizona team is not exactly playoff bound but who knows whether a hand fracture will heal correctly and how much hand strength will Goldy lose as a result of the fracture? How long will it take for him to recover to full strength and will it affect even next season. The point is that Goldy is a big part of the Arizona franchise's future.
No doubt Delgado remembered the public scalding that Arizona's GM Kevin Towers gave the team's pitching staff last season for not protecting their hitters and failing to retaliate. Recall that Arizona had an infamous and ugly incident with the Dodgers and Zach Greinke last year over a similar retaliation escalation. So there was little doubt in anyone's mind, least of all McCutheon, that Delgado threw a deliberate purpose pitch. Of course Kirk Gibson Diamondbacks' skipper chalked it up to the usual "the ball just got away from him" defense".
And what's next? Well Clint Hurdle the Pirates manager observed that "the game takes care of itself". That is diplomatic double talk that means we will take care of our players too and there's more to come whether today or the next time the teams meet.
But I'm always left wondering when somebody will come down so hard on these tit for tat unwritten customs that pitchers will be loathe to hurt someone because they will suffer a 50 game suspension. Or as Dick Hayhurst suggested a few months ago, law enforcement may have to step in and prosecute one of these guys for assault and battery to end the cycle of violence.
And to take the point one step further, you may enjoy A Pitch for Justice my novel that imagines a criminal prosecution for murder after a retaliatory pitch. http://www.amazon.com/Pitch-Justice-H...
