Flaming fastballs and flying fists
There are many parts of baseball that Brits need to become familiar with when they start watching the sport. Two that can take a bit of getting used to are the sight of pitchers deliberating throwing at a batter and bench-clearing incidents in which everyone runs on to the field to have a shoving match. More often than not, the two go hand-in-hand.
This was the case in Boston this week as the series between the Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays took a spicy turn. At the centre of it all was the long-held idea of ballplayers needing to ‘protect’ themselves and their team mates. Part self-preservation, part saving face; it’s a curious thing. Coco Crisp was the main instigator, hitting Akinori Iwamura with a forearm smash in response to what he felt was a bad block by Jason Bartlett earlier in the game. With the Rays incensed by Crisp’s actions, James Shields didn’t need anyone to tell him what he had to do in the following game. Shields deliberately threw at Crisp in his first at-bat as retaliation, following ‘plunking etiquette’ by throwing at his thigh rather than his head (for which he was universally praised). Crisp pulled the old ‘I’m going to first base … NO I’M NOT!’ trick to get a few steps on Rays’ catcher Dioner Navarro before charging the mound.
That was the cue for every player and coach to run on to the field in comical style, with lots of pushing and shoving and the occasional half-hearted punch thrown in for good measure. You can only hope that there was a little boy shouting “pile on†or “bundle†to cap it off. Such actions would be branded an “outrage†or a “disgrace†over here, but it’s an accepted part of baseball custom that happens wherever the game is being played. Even in the normally docile Netherlands. Suspensions are handed out and everyone puts it down as a part of the game.
Deliberately hitting a batter with the ball isn’t quite so unfamiliar to British sports fans as our American friends may think. Cricket, seemingly the most genteel of games, has long involved the practice of shaking up a batsman with a short ball that ends up somewhere around his throat. We saw a prize example recently during the second test between England and New Zealand, when Jimmy Anderson caught Daniel Flynn with a nasty delivery at Old Trafford, leaving the Kiwi with two of his teeth rolling along the floor. It’s an accepted tactic: if the batsman cannot show himself capable of dealing with such deliveries then he can expect plenty of the ‘short stuff’ to be coming his way.
However, there is a line beyond which the practice becomes unacceptable. The Bodyline series from the 1930s is the most infamous example of this and bowlers are now limited to one bouncer per over. It’s okay to bowl at someone’s head so long as you do it in the right way, just as ‘backing up’ your team mate by throwing at an opposing batter is fine if done within the unofficial rules of fair competition. Such sentiments might confuse a non-sports fan, but it’s a case of the players regulating themselves.
Tempers can always boil over in the heat of the battle though and the Rays are becoming experts at antagonising their AL East rivals. Their games against the Yankees during Spring Training (what we would call pre-season ‘friendlies’) descended into incident after incident of tit-for-tat acts of aggression earlier this year. Poor Iwamura was one of the main victims in that battle as well, receiving a nasty gash on his knee when Shelley Duncan made a hard/dirty (depending on your viewpoint) slide into second base that sparked a mass brawl. Second basemen certainly don’t have it easy.
Things are getting so heated that the Red Sox have started fighting among themselves, with Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkillis being involved in a dugout scuffle. That’s the consequence of intense competition and the Rays must be delighted that they are in the thick of it after never even dicing with .500 before in their short franchise history. It promises to be a hard but fair battle in the AL East throughout the rest of the season. Compelling action, but not for the faint hearted: exactly how baseball fans like it
Week 10 wrap-up
The aforementioned AL East division race currently sees the Red Sox (39-26) on top by just half a game over the Rays, with the Yankees 6.5 games back and bottom with a .500 record (31-31). In the other divisions, the leaders have managed to separate themselves slightly from the chasing pack. The White Sox (35-26) have won five on the bounce in the AL Central, including two against the second-placed Twins, to earn a 4.5 game cushion. The Angels (39-24) are in even better form as they’ve won their last seven to build a 5.5 game lead over the A’s (who have been the Angels’ victims in the last two games).
The Cubs’ 39-24 record ties them for the Major League lead with the Angels, although two losses to the Dodgers have enabled the Cardinals to get within 2.5 games in the NL Central. The Phillies (38-26) went 6-1 on the week to regain the lead in the East and open up a 3.5 game gap over the Marlins. In the NL West, the D-Backs (34-28) are unshakeable in first place as they lead the Dodgers by 4 games.
1 comment
I was thinking this week about why it is perfectly acceptable to rough up a batsman in cricket but not a hitter in baseball. The main reason is that once the ball hits the ground in cricket, anything that happens thereafter is not the bowler’s fault. And that makes some amount of sense, as, while it may be possible to direct the ball somewhat off the ground, it would be very difficult to find a spot on the ground to bowl at that equates to a ball bouncing up directly at the batsman’s head. In contrast, pitchers are capable off “painting the corners” in baseball, and therefore must aso be capable of pitching at a hitter’s head.