If I see Miguel Cabrera in the lineup between now and Game 1, Leyland’s getting a strongly-worded letter from a certain someone that looks and sounds like this guy sitting in this seat right here where I’m sitting.
On another note, since I seem to be a fan of recreational outrage in this thread, if you haven’t watched the Braves/Brewers brawl from yesterday, you should. I think we can all agree that Carlos Gomez is a moron. But is there a universe in which Brian McCann’s actions were appropriate?
Selig to retire after '14 season. Should make some folks around here genuinely ecstatic.
Keeping my fingers crossed for the Rangers but I think the damage has been done. What a pathetic dive at season’s end. I’ve watched them battle the lowly Astros the last several nights and they often struggled even with them.
I don’t have a big problem with what Gomez did there. Yeah, I know it’s against the “unwritten rules”, but if you don’t want a batter to show you up, then don’t let him hit the ball out of the park.
From what I’m reading and hearing, it looks like the general consensus is that McCann was justified in his actions, because he was “protecting his pitcher”, or something along those lines. I think that’s BS. The guy hit a home run. He’s entitled to round the bases, and there’s no excuse for preventing him from doing so. He should have been ejected from the game for that reason alone.
Mac wasn’t confronting him because he hit a home run, he was confronting him about his posturing and taunting afterwards. There was an interference call, and the run was scored despite the plate never being touched, so it’s not as if anything was taken from Gomez in the box score.
Maybe it was an overreaction or unnecessary escalation on Mac’s part, but given that we don’t know (all of) what was said by all parties during the AB and the trot, it’s hard to judge. Mac is a pretty affable and down-to-earth guy, as ML players go.
In any case, I think fans should like it when players are fired up about the game and their opponents.
Certainly ejecting McCann would have been a ludicrous overreaction, and subject to a protest.
Agreed. It appears from what little I’ve read that people are actually objecting to the fact that Gomez said he came to the park to show Maholm up and then swung too hard a the first pitch.
What a bunch of crybabies. I’m really embarrassed by the players and fans of this sport sometimes.
Yeah, I’m really not grasping all of the defense of McCann. That brawl happened because of McCann’s actions. There was no way for that to NOT turn into a fight. It boggles my mind that he wasn’t held responsible for that.
Gomez could have simply stopped on the basepath and looked over at Paul Nauert for the call. The run is scored, and he can walk back to the dugout.
Gomez was deliberately provocative throughout. Maybe Mac (and Freeman) could have not risen to the bait, but they didn’t start shit.
I’m not suggesting the Gomez was not provocative. Not even a little bit. But people grandstand on the field often. Players jaw at each other fairly often. When have you last seen a player deliberately block the path of another player on the field? When have you ever seen a player step up to and get in the face of another player without that clearing the benches?
Gomez’s actions were dumb. McCann’s were exceptional. And has been noted in some articles I’ve read, McCann had this same issue (although not taken as far) with the Marlin’s pitcher just a few weeks ago.
Exactly. Maybe the unwritten rules say you don’t stand and admire a home run. Maybe the unwritten rules say you don’t say mean things about the other players as you jog around the bases.
But the actual written rules say that getting in someone’s way is interference. The actual rules, not rules that appear to change day by day depending on who someone is rooting for or who someone dislikes.
Gomez (whom I know nothing about) apparently has a reputation as a fool and a hothead. But that does not, will not, and cannot justify someone trying to prevent him from scoring after a home run.
Yes, and as I said this was called. No injustice was perpetrated.
Nobody tried to prevent him from scoring.
Were we watching the same footage? Or are you saying that trying to prevent someone from crossing the plate is not the same thing as trying to prevent someone from scoring?
McCann did something the rules do not permit. Gomez did something the rules do permit. The penalties for the former should be greater than the penalties for the latter.
The unwritten rules of baseball do not exist. The written rules do.
You don’t think McCann ever had any idea that making a show of standing halfway up the path frim third would actually result in Gomez’ run not being counted?
McCann was reacting on pure emotion. It may not have been the ‘right’ reaction, but it was rooted in a character quality that most people want to see in their players.
If he’d actually wanted to try to steal the run, he should have stayed well off the path, leaving the plate conspicuously open to Gomez, and tried to needle him into leaving it to yell or shove or whatever. If the benches cleared then, and Gomez ended up being ejected or otherwise not touching the plate, the run would have (correctly) not been scored.
A long shot, but stranger things have happened.
But the point is, such a thing would never occur to Mac. He didn’t go down the line to stop Gomez from scoring, he went to get in his face and tell him what he thought.
:rolleyes: Let me see you say this to any player ever.
Or to, say, Bill James, who argues that the unwritten culture of the game is more important than the written rules in shaping what we actually see on the field.
Stupidity, arrogance, aggression, and rule-breaking? Poor impulse control, inability to recognize inappropriate actions, and (according to you) deliberately ineffectual posturing?
Because you’ll get to see what? Hoping they’ll hit me or something? That seems to be the level of thought and argument many of these players are capable of. “Disagree with me and I’ll hurt you. Hit a home run and I’ll hurt you. Say things and I’ll hurt you.”
I guarantee that I’ll lose any dick-waving contest, but that won’t actually make me wrong.
Just, uh, out of curiosity, Peremensoe, are you a fan of the Atlanta Braves?
That was going to be my question, too.
Gomez didn’t exactly cover himself in glory with his antics, but there’s nothing defensible about McCann’s actions, especially from the point of view of the actual rules of the game.
And, after a quick search, it appears that the answer to your question is “yes.”
McCann started a fight and made a travesty of the game. He deserved to be ejected at once.