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Last night the Arizona Diamondbacks were playing the Los Angles Dodgers. The Dodgers were absolutely killing them. With the score 8-0 in the fourth inning and the starter (Brian Anderson) already chased, relief pitcher Batista throws an errant pitch up around the batter's head. Home plate umpire Scott Higgins wastes absolutely no time and immediately chunks him.
The pitch appeared to me to be just a pitch that got away. Orel Hershiser was the color commentator and he made the same comment. There really wasn't any reason for a head hunting pitch. Looking at the replay several times it appeared to simply be a pitch that ran away. It happens!
Sandy Alderson has issued multiple statements regarding pitches "up and in". It was issued that a pitcher that throws "around the head" of a batter could be ejected with out warning. Last night was the first example of this being enforced.
I personally think this is bad. No, I don't think that it's good to throw at someone's head. But to take the judgement out of the umpire's hands and say across the board you will eject the pitcher regardless of circumstances is not good.
Fergie Jenkins was one of the most intimidating pitchers in baseball. He was known for throwing at you at the drop of a hat. He took it as a personal insult if a batter "dug in". One day while playing a game, a rookie, forgot himself and "dug in" while preparing for his first AB against Jenkins. He suddenly snapped to and remembered that he was not to do such things with Jenkins pitching. He quickly steps back out of the box and with terror in his voice tells the catcher to go out and tell Jenkins that he is sorry. The catcher, laughing, tells him that there is nothing he can do and that the damage is already done. The batter continues to whine and complain at the catcher. This begins to delay the game. Finally the umpire gets involved. He looks at the batter and says," Look, you know you screwed up and so does everyone else. NOW GET IN THE BOX AND TAKE YOUR MEDICINE!"
The batter was promptly plunked on the next pitch.
I don't reccomend going back to this way of doing things. But today's decisions coming out of Sandy Alderson's office just don't seem to make good since.
We all know the old addage," $hit runs down hill". How long until the NCAA and NFHS take these same stances. In an amatuer game I have never had to eject a pitcher for purposely throwing at a batter. Yet, there have been many batters hit. I don't like what I see on the horizon.
[Edited by ump24 on Apr 12th, 2001 at 03:10 PM]
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