Travesty is exactly right. It seems like we’re totally around the bend sometimes with the unwritten rules nonsense. Just because they were playing baseball doesn’t mean it was the friggin’ Wild West. This was a straightforward case of a grown man starting a physical altercation with another grown man and interrupting the actual playing of baseball because the other guy was being annoying.
There’s a reason we teach children that doggerel about sticks and stones.
No, they’ll probably laugh. Because you are wrong. The “unwritten rules” are a huge and inextricable part of baseball culture, have been since before the league was founded. They do change, slowly, but they certainly won’t ever go away.
I don’t understand people who purport to be fans but don’t seem to want to actually understand what’s happening and why.
Even Gomez himself has now said that he understands McCann’s reaction, and that it was he, Gomez, that was in the wrong.
Well, I do understand people who support thuggery and violence and whose opinion about an action hinges on what team they’re rooting for. I just wish I didn’t.
Very sweet tribute to Mariano Rivera at his last home game tonight. He got the last two outs of the eight inning and the first two outs of the ninth - the Yankees were losing, so it was a non-save situation - and the Yankees sent Jeter and Pettitte to take him out of the game, let the three of them have a moment together and let the fans go crazy for him one more time.
Because then they wouldn’t be sending the other players to get him and he wouldn’t be in the spotlight. It would just be the general tumult of an inning change.
It was much better the way they did it. It made for a much more dramatic moment. In between innings there are other things going on. By pulling him with one out remaining you can control the moment.
The Braves pitcher, Paul Maholm, has hit Carlos Gomez with pitches twice in the 21 times he has faced Gomez. The last HBP was in Gomez’s knee when it was injured. Maholm is a a jerk who is unable to deal with the fact that Gomez is hitting .450 against him with 2 doubles and 2 Home Runs.
Gomez had his head down as he approached first base until the Braves first baseman barked at him and only then replied. McCann had no right to block Gomez from home plate.
The Braves are punks and should have taken the Home Run like men instead of acting like gangland bullies.
Gomez was havng words with McCann even before his first swing. And I’m pretty sure he was talking to Maholm before he got to Freeman.
But look, I am not justifying or “supporting” Mac’s or anyone’s actions. I said it was “maybe… an overreaction,” an “unnecessary escalation,” and “not ‘right.’”
But it was in keeping with baseball culture. It seems Gomez and the Brewers understand that. It doesn’t say anything specific about the Braves; similarly-motivated incidents are certain to happen in future with other teams.
Yeah, that’s all there was to it. I actually didn’t like that they were taking him out until I saw how Rivera reacted to having them out there. The crowd would have given him a big sendoff between innings, but this made for a much more memorable moment.
Yeah, it was definitely a class move on the Yankees part. One question though*: Is it legal for anybody other than the manager to make a lineup/personnel change during a game?
Understand that I’m NOT saying that anybody gives a damn and it would have been a completely asshole move for anybody to say anything about it given the circumstances (Yanks losing, Rivera’s last game, etc).
Yeah, but it wasn’t! Or at least should have drawn a warning…*
Rule 3.17:
Players and substitutes of both teams shall confine themselves to their teams benches unless actually participating in the play or preparing to enter the game, or coaching at first or third base. No one except players, substitutes, managers, coaches, trainers and bat boys shall occupy a bench during a game.
PENALTY: For violation the umpire may, after warning, remove the offender from the field.
Rule 3.17 Comment: Players on the disabled list are permitted to participate in pre-game activity and sit on the bench during a game but may not take part in any activity during the game such as warming up a pitcher, bench-jockeying, etc. Disabled players are not allowed to enter the playing surface at any time or for any purpose during the game.
*I suppose there might have been a wink and a nod, “Well, we have to warn him for it, but no sweat…” coda to the permission.
Also, re my original question:
3.06
The manager shall immediately notify the umpire-in-chief of any substitution and shall state to the umpire-in-chief the substitutes place in the batting order.
It’s possible Joe warned the ump before the inning or said something to him during the standing o that dotted the 'i’s and crossed the 't’s. And of course, as mentioned above, this was not a time for rules lawyering. It’s moments like this that make baseball such a great game.
Like I said, Girardi said he asked the umpires before the eighth inning if he could do this, and they told him it was fine. That was apparently the extent of their discussion.
I have been watching Major League Baseball with near-religious devotion for over thirty years and I have never, not once, seen a catcher do what Brian McCann did. I invite you to provide evidence that his actions were “in keeping with baseball culture.”
Read here, for example, where Gomez acknowledges his provocations, apologizes all around, says he respects McCann, and “if I’m the catcher, I do the same thing.”
Also notice the umpire comments, which are all about actual blows in the ensuing fracas–which drew ejections and suspensions. If it’s McCann who was so clearly the egregious bad actor here, as some of you think, why wasn’t he ejected? Why don’t umpires point to him? Because while the actual mode of his confronting Gomez was more visibly (to fans) direct and physical than usual, the context and motivation were understood by everyone on the field.
I invite you to provide evidence–from inside the game, not fans’ or journalists’ opinions–to the contrary.