It's too bad that Major League Baseball has made some changes throughout its 125 plus, year history, but they seem to have forgotten about the safety of the individual players. Team owners over the years have installed lights so they can play the game at night; they built indoor stadiums that can comfortably accommodate 60,000 adoring spectators so that games can be played whatever the weather conditions are outside; and owners are able to reap tremendous profits by successfully marketing their teams through rich television contracts. But they seem to be reluctant to take the necessary action to crack down on pitchers who continue to throw the ever dangerous 'beanball' at some of the top hitters in the league under the weak excuse that they are just trying to take away the inside part of the plate, and that it's just 'part of the game'. Surely, no major league pitcher is willing to let a batter crowd the inside corner of the plate so that he can try to gain some advantage by reaching balls on the ouside of the plate and potentially driving them with power on the 'sweet spot' of the bat. But, that old argument is becoming a dangerous one especially with pitchers now throwing fastballs in the mid to high 90's, and a few even reaching 100 mph. And let's face it, most pitchers who are throwing these fastballs inside are doing so for a reason, but they also know exactly where it's going. For example, on Tuesday night, August 4, the LA Dodgers were enjoying a 13 run lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in Los Angeles, and things boiled over when LA pitcher Guillermo Mota drilled Brewer's All-star first baseman, Cecil Fielder, in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. We all understand the point because a Brewer pitcher had hit the LA Dodgers' high-priced star player, Manny Ramirez in the seventh inning. It was obviously retaliation on the part of the Dodgers. In fact, the catcher, Russell Martin admitted as much even though the pitch that hit Ramirez was much less purposeful. In a strange oddity, Mota and Fielder were teammates last year in Milwaukee. So much for old friends. The next night, LA actually kept Ramirez out of the game for fear of a reprisal. However, the whole situation boiled over after the game when Fielder took off for the Dodgers' clubhouse shouting obscenities all the way as he wanted to get a piece of Mota, but several of his own teammates trailed behind him in a strange scene. A couple of players and a wall of security personnel were necessary to block his way. Baseball fans used to think that this sort of thing would be less likely to happen in the National League since pitchers also have to bat, and they'd be right in the line of fire themselves when they went the plate if they hit an opposing batter, but this is not so. It happens in both leagues. Major League Baseball is not likely to ever stop pitchers from hitting opposing players in order to protect their own, but they certainly could take steps to send a message prohibiting throwing at a batter's head, like Mota did on Tuesday night, if they wanted to. If they were to crack down on the problem, there could be a three step policy with an escalating penalty of suspensions and/or fines, with a '3 strikes and you're out' for the season' for the guilty party. Of course, each incident would have to be reviewed by the league office before any penalty would be handed out, as other incidents are currently handled. By: Frank Bilotta
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