There are an infinite number of things to love about baseball:
- the fun lingo (balks, bang-bang play, can of corn, Mendoza line, painting the black, on the screws, basket catch - the list goes on...)
- the endless, unnecessary, mind-numbingly in-depth statistics
- the unique angles of every individual MLB stadium
- the excitement felt during a developing no-hitter or perfect game
- the sheer number of games MLB teams play each year, with most of them demonstrating heart through the end of the season, even when they have no shot of making the playoffs
- that ball that bounced off of Jose Canseco's head into the stands that one time (wish it had happened more)
- ...again, the list could go on forever
- John Valentin's unassisted triple play on July 8, 1994
- Aaron Boone's Game 7 homer in extra innings in last year's Game 7 of the ALCS (agonizing and depression-inducing for Sox fans; unexpected beauty for Yankee fans)
- Cal Ripken's celebratory lap upon passing the record for "The Streak"
- Wade Boggs' post-loss cry in the Sox dugout after the 1986 debacle
Apparently, Lofton had exchanged words with Mientkiewicz at first base earlier in the game, so Astacio felt the childish need to throw at Kenny. He missed once, feigned that he was a REAL baseball player for one more pitch, then repeated his first unsuccessful plunking attempt. He was tossed - and deservedly so. Both teams received warnings. Fast forward to the bottom of the inning - Dave Roberts is nearly drilled in the skull by Halsey's first pitch of the half inning. Benches clear, Halsey and Torre are ejected - again deservedly so.
If you were watching the game on ESPN2, you heard the utterly inane commentary by a couple dweebs, whose names are escaping my memory, following these events. These aforementioned dweebs essentially implied that this ugliness was simply a "part of the game." (They may have moderated that claim with the adjective "unfortunate.") They also implied that baseball fans should expect this type of macho, eye-for-an-eye retribution bullshit.
Well, I'm sorry, but no. Throwing a ball 90 miles per hour at someone's head was never in the minds of early players of various incarnations of this beautiful sport. I've never read the entire MLB rulebook, but I will pledge allegiance forever to the Evil Empire that is the Yankees if there is a byline somewhere stipulating that it is perfectly acceptable behavior for a pitcher to nail an opposing hitter if he feels this player has committed some small affront against one of his teammates or himself. The MLB playing field is home to too many amazing feats of athleticism to also be home to such a "you-stole-my-cookie-so-now-I-throw-a-Lego-at-you" attitude.
The fact that this attitude all-too-often prevails does not, my dear baseball commentators, solidify it as "part of the game." As journalists, they should be ashamed to sanction the asinine behavior of individual idiots by normalizing it in such a way. They tarnish the sport and look like fools while doing it. (To be fair, these two particular commentators aren't the sole targets of this rant; I hear commentators make the argument about pitchers needing to "protect" their teammates or "defend their team's honor" by throwing at the opposing team all of the time. And you know what? Those guys are idiots too.)
If the Sox and Yankees do end up meeting in the 2004 ALCS - and my hope is for nothing else in the world - all signs point to this intense and awesome rivalry resulting in another brawl. Will baseball fans expect it? Yes. Should they have to? God, no.
I'm not sure when this brute, troglodyte mentality became so prevalent in the game - or maybe I'm wrong and it's always been there - but it is not part of the baseball game that I know and love that leads to tears and screams of alternately joy and agony; that captivates entire cities during certain series or playoff games; that inspires millions of boys and girls around the world to pester their parents for their first baseball mitts. No. This behavior is the result of players' kneejerk reactions to tense situations that are based on the arcane cultural expectations about the proper demonstration of masculine loyalty through violence. I'm guessing this shit makes a lot of honorable baseball players roll over in their graves, and it absolutely makes me want to vomit to see such a thing of beauty made ugly by a bunch of guys striving to fit into society's male cookie cutter.
Sigh...at least the Sox won. The game wasn't a complete waste.
7 comments:
I'm proud to say that I was at Fenway to witness another of the "Great Moments in Canseco History." When said muscleman was playing for Texas, he came in to pitch (!) a few innings when his Rangers were being routed by the Sox.
Total joke: a wild pitch here, a walk there, a double, etc and he was gone. A few yucks for the Fenway faithful, end of story, right? Not so fast. Turned out that this very short outing must have ripped a fragile thread of Jose's carefully constructed physique. He was out at least half a season.
Ha!
I can't wait to see Zimmergate trumped in Game 1 of the ALCS when Manny sprints across the field to give Stottlemyre the noogie of a lifetime. Don't make me wet willie you, son!
That's awesome!
I actually witnessed yet another stupid Canseco moment (there are so many, aren't there?). He was doing a rehab assignment in Pawtucket, so I went to the game and he performed horribly, so the fans started to boo him. He got really pissed at the fans, and showed his displeasure. Then, in post-game interviews he said how much he hated Pawtucket, and that he would never, under any circumstances, do another rehab assignment there.
Well, the idiot wasn't thinking that he still had one game left in his current assignment, so the next night the fans booed him every chance they got. It was amusing - what a schmuck.
Nicely put, though I'd add that there IS a tradition of fighting, violence, and hypermasculine thuggery in baseball's past; however, this is largely due to the fact that the game was first playing by hard living thugs. Getting into fisticuffs for these guys wasn't such a big deal because they were the sort of men who'd get too drunk at the bar and pick fights with husbands of women they'd slept with. The difference over time, however, is that baseball players are no longer thugs, and it's time they stop acting as such. It's a game, it's competitive, and there should be tension, but you're totally right - all of those things do not add up to throwing a 90+mph fastball directly at someone's body.
Nihilist, I get the impression that baseball has been a sport of subdued tension, where all the "hypermasculine thuggery" was historically performed off-diamond not to mention off-season. Which is why Ty Cobb is considered such a godlike arsehole. Nowadays he'd be just a run-of-the-mill MLB bigot with spikey spikes right?
But I could be wrong... Sarah is there a historical record of the first bench-clearing brawl or the first batter (intentionally) hit by a pitch? Or the first batter to charge the mound? I'm fascinated!
sarah I reviewed and memorized the MLB lingo link, but in the definition of "Texas Leaguer" they refer to a "bloop hit". What's a "bloop hit"?
Mark! A "bloop hit" is a not-very-well-hit ball that somehow eludes getting caught - bloop hits generally fall into the shallow outfield. They're kinda fun to watch develop, because you'll have infielders and outfielders converging on the ball and you often don't know till the ball hits the grass if it's going to be caught or not. I'm not sure when the first official bench-clearing brawl was - though I bet it is recorded somewhere.
Nihilist - thanks for the comments. I think the old fashioned machoism you describe may well have been there, but it certainly was a different thing. Those guys were fighting for their individual masculinity and pride, which is no less of a problem, but I get the impression that modern baseball players feel some sort of herd mentality loyalty to each other that is somehow fueled by cultural stereotypes. Aaahh, but what the hell, the Sox are now only 3 games back and they've clinched a playoff spot!
Perhaps this discussion is past its sell date by now, but just to respond to Mark and Sarah's comments, the perception we have of older players now is not precisely how things played out then. yes, ty cobb was a racist who spiked people, but the impression we have now of him being a gigantic asshole is based more on the fact that he is incredibly famous (relative to historical baseball players) AND was a genuine asshole on a communicative level; however, there isn't much reason to believe that his aggressive-at-all-costs play on the field was much different than anybody else (save Honus Wagner, a gentleman among alcoholic creeps). Spiking was a common practice applied by many if not most players; Ty Cobb just happened to have been enough of a jerk that people still attach it to his memory.
I agree with Sarah's point though that perhaps that sort of behavior was more about individual "masculinity/pride" than anything else, but don't think that players back then weren't fiercely loyal to both each other and to tradition. It is because of this that it took until 1947 for blacks to join the league. Yeah, there were tons of racists who kept blacks out of the game, but certainly there were many who didn't give a shit and just wanted to play ball. The bottom line, however, was that if have your team wouldn't have a black in the clubhouse, none of them would have one. For the racists, it didn't take much convincing, but if that wasn't enough for the rest of them, the sheer fact that there was a tradition of no blacks in baseball was enough justification to keep them out. I know this isn't precisely analogous to the violence we see now, but my point is the loyalty and stubbornness that baseball players have always had; the violence of today is just an adapted extension of that. Since most of these guys really aren't the sort of jerks who look for fights, yeah, part of what enables them to continue the "aggressive" tradition is the fact they can hide under the cover of the herd mentality, but i don't see this behavior as being qualitatively any different than ever before - only more cowardly.
All of this reminds me of a great game back in 1994 when Pedro Martinez (then a pre-MLBabandonment Expo) carried a perfect game into the 8th inning but then hit Reggie Sanders - bless his heart - and a brawl ensued. Why the hell would Pedro intentionally throw at an opposing player when his team is winning and the other team has yet to do shit? Ahh yes, testosterized boys.
Again though, nice post Sarah D.
-Jeffrey B.
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