Baseball players have long been known as the “boys of summer.” Boys being the operative word.
Well, it’s perhaps unfair to say that baseball players are more immature than any other pampered athlete wh has never had to grow up…
But there’s something endemic about childishness in the major leagues. There are certain rules - which a pitcher cannot break.
For example, if the pitcher of an opposing team hits one of your teammates with a ball, you are expected to hit one of their teammates with the ball in retaliation.
If you don’t, you’ll be ostracized by your own teammates, for not protecting your players.
But there’s got to be better ways of protecting your players than hitting someone with a ball, perhaps injuring them, ending their season or perhaps their career.
Yes, there are a few players, like Jason Giambi or Barry Bonds, who wear so much armor on their elbows that they will actually see a ball coming near them and deliberately lean into it, getting a free pass to first base. (And that should be done away with, as well. Whatever happened to “batter must make a legitimate effort to get out of the way of the ball”?)
But while a batter has a helmet, if he’s hit in the head, a 90 mph fast ball can still do considerable damage.
So now we’ve got the case of LaTroy Hawkins, who threw at Baltimore Orioles Luke Scott on Tuesday night. And he didn’t just throw at the man - he threw at his head.
Sure, Ted Williams for one said that he preferred it when pitchers threw at his head - it was easier to see and get out of the way - but someone with slightly lower reflexes is going to get plunked.
The reports say Hawkins was ejected “without warning” by the home plate umpire.
How many warnings did Hawkins need? You throw a ball head high, that should be an automatic ejection, whether it was legitimately an accident, or - as is much more likely - not.
According to an article in Inside Science, published in 2004, “During the entirety of the DH era (1973-present), the hit-batsmen rate has been 15% higher in the AL than the NL.”
This is because National League pitchers have to bat - and if they hit someone…they know they will be hit in their turn. In the American league, of course, the pitcher can hit anyone he wants, secure in the knowledge that it is his teammates who will suffer for it.