Okay, so I get that I’m supposed to be more upset that the Red Sox lost the game than happy that Ryan Dempster did what I’ve wanted every MLB pitcher to do since Slappy started playing again, but I’m not. Can’t find it in me to be bothered to care.*
In a perfect world, that HBP wouldn’t have ended up producing runs and Dempster would have pitched better and the Red Sox win that game without seeing that arrogant, lying, POS round the bases. But we don’t live in a perfect world. If we did, someone facing the biggest suspension in MLB history wouldn’t be allowed to continue to play out the season before his appeal is heard.
But he is. While Ryan Braun (an equally arrogant, lying POS) sits out, Slappy is allowed to stomp all over MLB playing the victim while he racks up the stats. So if we are going under the idea of Braun being as bad as Rodriguez, at least Braun took his punishment.
*This isn’t entirely true. I never want to see the Sox lose, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to chastise Dempster for taking the opportunity. Joe Girardi can complain all he wants about Dempster and the Fenway fans who cheered for the HBP, but he isn’t fooling me. He knows why it happened and he knows why it made many fans very happy. You can be mad that someone threw at one of your guys, regardless of the circumstances, but don’t pretend A-Rod is an innocent bystander in some vast Major League conspiracy when the only person responsible for any negative treatment he gets is himself.
Regardless of what went on yesterday, the Red Sox begin a new week still in first place. They’ve struggled as of late but, hell, the way they’ve been playing this year (especially compared to last year) I’m willing to give them a little leeway right now.
Things could be so much worse. We could be rooting for the Yankees this year.
I have to say I have mixed feelings. Yes, I loved Dempster doing what EVERYONE in MLB and every fan base wanted him to do. But I do think he might have held his fire till he was firmly in the lead and was on the way to handing the game over to his best relievers. OR, later in the season when it might have been less costly or expected.
I’m not saying he shouldn’t have done it, mind you. But the Sox might have been destined to lose with Dempster pitching anyway. I never thought this was a game they had in the bag.
I would like to get this behind us. I would like ARod to disappear in a puff of smoke. AND, I would like us to perhaps spend more time restraining ourselves and not giving him any more attention that he so desperately needs/wants. A much more powerful statement might have been every fan standing up, turning their backs, or sitting in deathly silence whenever he came to bat. Sometimes I hate that people are so predictable and just rely on screaming and hitting players with balls. Perhaps we could work on being more creative in our disdain.
Ultimately, NO, I don’t regret him hitting ARod. I just wish it felt more satisfying today than it does.
Hi Cyn,
Glad you are back. You have not lost anything on your fastball.
Missed you Toeing the Rubber.
Chuck
I find this case really interesting. We all “know” Demp did this on purpose and we all “know” what that purpose was. But we do not, in fact, know in any legal sense. He hasn’t admitted he intended to hit the man. No witnesses testify to his having said he meant to hit him. So all we have to go on is . . . our manifest universal intuition. This would have little to no weight in a court of law. But Dempster has been suspended as if he had punched A-Rod in a nationally televised brawl, when all we can actually prove is that he threw four pitches very far inside and the last one hit the batter. Count the number of times that has happened in a baseball game? A lot. And sometimes the intent is not “I’m gonna hit this bleep.” Sometimes it’s more like “Given my stuff, the batter’s skills, and the game situation, I need to jam this batter inside and keep doing it til he takes the walk or HBP or, hopefully, gets himself out. If I throw this anywhere but right on this dude’s hands, he’s gonna jack me out of the ballpark.” We all “know” Demp wasn’t thinking this when he threw four tight to A-Rod. But do we legally know it? Nope.
Two thoughts on this: on the one hand, if I’m a pro pitcher today maybe I should be disturbed by Dempster’s suspension. Suspending a pitcher for hitting a batter at a point in a game when no warning had been issued to the benches seems a dubious precedent to set, since it presumes the league can punish you any time you hit a batter: if THEY THINK you did it on purpose, it doesn’t matter what your actual intent was. If that were regularly invoked, nobody could afford to pitch inside, and if that were the case, pitchers would be doomed at this level of ball.
However–and this is the part that probably has a lot of MLB players snickering cheerfully today–Demp’s suspension was a mere five days. Since, given Sox off days, this is in effect a non-suspension, as he’ll miss no starts, the length of the suspension suggests a covert slap in Slappy’s face on the part of MLB. “Sure, we’ll punish him for hitting you. . . sorta!! HAHAHA you lying manipulative bleep!”