Baseball Retaliation
By: Jason Cunningham (6/09/2005)
I am tired of hearing former and current Major
League Baseball players stating that the pitcher has to protect his team by
hitting the other team's batter. It is absurd that grown men try to justify
hitting a batter with a 90 mile per hour fastball in the middle of the back as
part of the game.
If hitting a batter because he hits a home run and
show boats a little, or the opposing pitcher brushed your player off the plate
is so much part of the game, then why are some players ready to charge the
mound? I know some people are going to say, but it is still not as
dangerous as playing football. Yes, but there is a built in expectation of
getting hit in football by opposing players. In baseball, collisions occurs when
you are trying to steal a base or stretch a triple into a inside the park home
run, not when you are at bat.
To me, a pitcher who hits a batter on purpose should not
be mad if that player charges the mound and puts him on the dl. It is ludicrous
when you watch a baseball game, to see an umpire give each team a warning for
throwing at a batter. Talk about what we need to be teaching our children, the
fundamentals of hitting a ball player, so your little league game can escalate
into a brawl. Unfortunately, the only way most Major League Baseball players
will agree with me, is for one of them to be paralyzed or end up in a grave, as
a result of hitting a batter, because it is part of the game.
I am quite sure the game of baseball will survive if you
do not hit batters on purpose. Besides a fastball in the back, arm, or neck
stings very badly. As much as baseball players on average make, you would think
they would never think of throwing at one another.
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