Baseball has less and less tolerance for the "old ways" of handling disputes. The umpires tolerate deliberate HBP less and less, and they're following instructions. The owners have too much money tied up in the marquee players -- who get hit by accident enough as it is -- and it always seems to be they who engage in "stylin'" and deserve to be thrown at.
Since the players can no longer take care of this misbehavior themselves, and since it's not against the rules, expect to see more and more of it. Won't be long before we see some classless schlunk "hit the ATM" after knocking one out (or some similar NFL shenanigans).
I thought Betancourt might plunk Ramirez in game 4 after that dumb way he savored his home run (team still down 4). But Betancourt was too classy: he just got Manny to fly out to end the inning.
Either that or he realized that if he plunked Manny, the batter would end up on 1B and Betancourt would be ejected, neither of which would help the team.
