by Joey Durant
Last weekend, the MLB saw an extreme case of retaliation and temperament in one of their generally calm baseball games. The Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals played a in a very heated matchup on April 19th, which ended with five ejections. The teams were already tense after Brett Lawrie, of the A's, slid hard into second base and collided with Royals' shortstop Alcides Escobar the day before. Lawrie was hit in the elbow by a pitch later in that game from Yordano Ventura, who was ejected immediately. Late in the Saturday game, Brett Lawrie was targeted again, this time by Kelvin Herrera. Herrera flung a 100 mph fastball past Lawrie's head, leading to another ejection. As he was leaving the field, Herrera pointed towards his head and was seen shouting something to Lawrie who had walked to first base (SI Wire, 2015). The pitch was viewed as a clearly intentional action, meaning to hit Lawrie in the head with what would have been a brutal pitch in retaliation for Lawrie injuring Escobar the day before. A's reliever Sean Doolittle took to Twitter to voice his opinions of the incident, calling Herrera's actions "bush league" and "hot garbage" in reference to the pitch and to Herrera pointing at his head (SI Wire, 2015; para. 4).
Retaliation like this is not new to baseball, but the fact that Herrera aimed for the head of Lawrie with a 100 mph pitch is disturbing. Getting hit with a baseball at any speed can be dangerous, but that type of intent could legitimately end a players career. Pitchers typically will pitch inside on a batter that they want to send a message to, and will usually pitch to their abdomen area. That retaliation may not be right, but at least it won't send a guy to the hospital. Herrera, in my opinion, acted with malice and a true intent to injure Lawrie. He used the baseball as a weapon, aimed at Lawrie's head and luckily missed. Herrera should be suspended for his actions, but even then I don't think he should be put in against the A's in the future in order to avoid any similar incidents.
Do you think that Herrera should be punished by the league, either in the form of a suspension or fine? What ethical considerations are in play when a pitcher decides to retaliate against an opposing batter? Is there a difference in intentionally throwing at a batters body, rather than their head? Should intentional throws like Herrera's be more strictly policed by the MLB?
References
SI Wire. (2015, April 19). Five Royals ejected in win over Athletics. Retrieved from http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/04/19/kansas-city-royals-ejections-oakland-athletics-kelvin-herrera-brett-lawrie
I agree with Sean Doolittle in that Herrera’s actions were bush league. While games can get heated, retaliating with intent to seriously injure another player is unacceptable. All athletes get frustrated in the heat of the moment and want to take their anger out on the opponent, but aiming for such a vulnerable body part like the head is taking things too far. It is a different story in sports like basketball or soccer. For example, pushing an opponent a little harder than necessary will usually not result in injury. In baseball, to throw a ball aiming for a player’s body at 100 mph could lead to serious injury.
ReplyDeleteI think the MLB should fine Herrera. In addition, I think the A’s coach should sit Herrera down and talk about his actions with him privately. If the coach disciplines Herrera and helps him understand that this type of behavior is prohibited, maybe Herrera will clean up his act. If this were to occur again, the MLB should take stricter action against both Herrera and the A’s for continuing to display behavior that is bush league.
Kali Morgenstern
I agree that Herrera acted out of malice, his actions are disgraceful. As Kali said, even though games may get heated and tempers fly there is no excuse to intentionally attempt to harm someone in sport. In any sport I've played, if the game ever got intense and heated my immediate reaction wasn't too harm anyone, it was to shut the team up with my play and let the game speak for itself. I remember during a rivarly game in high school (football) the game had gotten heated and one of the players started running his mouth because of hard hits that made him agitated and I remember shouting back to him "scoreboard!, look at the scoreboard!", to this very day I still don't like that guy to be honest but I let our play on the field do the work for me. With that said, I feel that Herrera should both be fined and suspended. If he would have succeded I'm connecting with the pitch he threw it could of caused serious damage and there may have been a whole other case at hand like legal ramifications maybe. It actually astonishes me that intentionally pitching at a player to "send a message" is ok. It comes off as extremely irresponsible of the MLB, for them to allow such pitches is very insensitive and inconsiderate of player safety. My reason behind this is that just because its a baseball, it doesn't mean that it can't be a weapon. Once it is used out of the nature for which it was created for with intention to harm someone it then becomes a weapon. So yes, I believe the MLB should pay closer attention to those kinds of pitches and crack down on them.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Robinson
I agree with both Jonathan and Kali. What he did was wrong and there is not excuse. I think it all goes back to the discussion of aggression in class and when is the line crossed. I think hitting a batter to get him off the plate or as in baseball protect their teammates to an extent is just part of the game. When you intentionally go for the head you have definitely crossed a line. If it hits a batter in the head you aren't talking about a bruise that could last a few days but a serious injury could occur. So I do believe there should be some form of punishment for throwing at a batter above the letters. There is a huge difference between throwing at the body and the head. A baseball game should never have 5 ejections. Lines were crossed in that game.
ReplyDeleteCourtney Cox
In my opinion, there is no question that Herrera should be punished somehow by MLB. As stated in the blog, there is an un-written rule in baseball that if you feel the need to send a message, you hit a guy in his body. Never do you throw at a guy's head. In total reality, there is no reason to ever throw at a guy. If you're a good pitcher, you should be able to retaliate by simply striking people out.
ReplyDeleteI have always felt that the MLB has never had a handle on players getting thrown at. People getting intentionally hit happens all the time. Usually players are ejected and then are able to come back in their next appearance. Because pitchers take 4-5 days off, I feel that the only way to truly punish them is to fine them an extensive amount of money.
Derek Shay
Amanda Notley
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this type of behavior is a part of baseball. It has been going on for years and years and it will not end anytime soon. This type of retaliation is pretty much the only type of physical contact baseball players can get in and if contact is made it can be brutal. With that I feel that it is a reasonable decision to have a suspension given out because it was clear to what his intent really was when he threw that pitch at his head and later pointed to his own head. Herrera clearly had no regards for the safety of the batter and that type of malice should be dealt with pretty harshly in my opinion. It really is time for the MLB to take action and give out harsher penalties that show that this type of behavior is unacceptable. There should also be harsher rules on sliding into other players while trying to break up a play because of all the injuries it causes.