eagle eye
05-18-2016, 07:22 AM
For those of us who have watched MLB games for a long time you are aware of the unwritten ''rules'' that govern baseball. Some of them are good and some are just stupid. Why, when a guy hits a huge hit in a playoff game and he flips his bat in the emotion of the moment, it marked for revenge for showing up the opposing pitcher and/or the team? Isn't a bat flip basically the same thing as a fist pump and a primal scream by a player in the NBA for a big slam dunk with the game on the line? Isn't there a correlation between spiking a ball in front of a defender in the end zone of a playoff game after a game winning TD? And how is getting drilled with a 98 mph fastball in May equal to a bat flip after a game winning hit in a playoff game in October? It doesn't. The bat flip might be a little insulting (even though it shouldn't be) but it doesn't hurt anything but your pride. A 98 mph fastball to your ribs could cause a lot of damage. Broken ribs, bruising you lungs or heart, injuring a kidney or your liver or rupturing your spleen. Even if none of these things occur being hit by a baseball fricking hurts. At very least he is bruised and will be hurting for a week or two. Not a fair exchange for not wearing your big boy pants to the ball park. "I got my feelings hurt" does not compare to physically hurting an opponent. That was the premise of Jose Bautista getting drilled by Rangers pitcher Matt Bush. In an unrelated incident (or was it?) Bautista slid into 2B a little late in a perfectly acceptable attempt to prevent a double play on a ground ball by Justin Smoak. Bautista made little to no contact with Odor on the slide and he did force a bad throw allowing Smoak to reach 1B. The whole thing broke down when Odor took major offense at the slide immediately confronting Bautista with a two handed push and a straight right hand punch to Bautista's jaw. It's not part of the unwritten rules of baseball to be a dick and there is no excuse for Odor to react so violently when he's the done the same thing and worse. MLB handed down the punishments for the brawl that ensued after Odor punched Bautista. Odor was given an 8 game suspension, Jays manager John Gibbons got 3 games for returning to the field after being ejected earlier in the game. Jays 1B coach Tim Lieper was suspended for one game for returning to the dugout after being ejected, Rangers SS Elvis Andrus was suspended one game for his actions in the brawl and Bautista was suspended one game for his slide into 2B. Wait, what? In the wake of the Chase Utley slide that severely injured Ruben Tejada were two completely different slides. Utley didn't even attempt to touch 2B as he went outside the base line to take out Tejada. While Bautista's slide was late it was not an overt attempt at taking the legs out on Odor. Bautista slid straight over the 2B bag. In my mind these are two different types of plays. It didn't matter to Odor who came up pissed and swinging. He is one of a very few baseball players to land a punch in a fight on the field. It was a good punch but it doesn't make Odor right, a good role model or any less of a dick. The fact is despite a punch landed squarely on Bautista's jaw it didn't anything but momentarily stun him. Bautista threw a punch that didn't land and the Rangers Adrian Beltre got Bautista in a bear hub from behind and moved him out of the middle of the fight. Way to go Beltre, God bless the peace keepers. ESPN's Karl Ravech said Odor deserved at least a 10 game suspension and I agree. I also agree that if Bautista had to go on the DL because of the punch Odor should be on suspension for the same amount of games Bautista missed. Some of the blame for all the crap that surrounds the Rangers I believe comes from the Rangers manager Jeff Banister. That guy is responsible for the attitude the team brings to the field and I swear I believe the Rangers have gotten into stuff with every other team. They got into it with Houston last season with Banister grabbing AJ Hinch by the jersey during a confrontation. Again, that confrontation began when Odor was being himself. Here's a link to the ESPN article about the punishments handed down by the MLB league office including a video of Ravech going off on how he thought Odor deserved at least a 10 game suspension.
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/70766/punishing-rougned-odor-for-a-punch-and-jose-bautista-for-getting-punched
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/70766/punishing-rougned-odor-for-a-punch-and-jose-bautista-for-getting-punched