[greymule]

He implied that injuring a "dirty" player was a goal of many other players.

I think that's true. Since the rules didn't penalize dirty play, the players exacted justice themselves.

In 1964, in my first pitching start in American Legion, an opponent thrown out at 1B clearly attempted to step hard on our first baseman's foot. (He did hit some of the foot, but not enough to cause injury.) The umps said nothing, and our F3 just glared at the guy as he went toward his dugout.

At the end of the inning, my coach told me, "When that ba$t-rd comes up again . . ." and pointed to his own head. As a 15-year-old, I was taken aback somewhat and asked, "Really?" to which the coach responded, "You gotta protect your teammate."

The coach was a well-respected former pro, and the guy I was supposed to throw at was in the minors a few years later.

When the guy came up again, the bases were loaded with two out. I didn't want to risk hitting the guy and giving up a run, so I threw a strike, which the guy lined back to me for the third out. My coach wasn't happy, and asked me if I remembered his order. I said, "Well, I didn't want to be obvious and throw at him on the first pitch. Plus, I didn't want to fall behind him with the bases loaded."

(Fifteen years later, that same bast . . . er, guy was playing shortstop in a softball game, and I slid into him to break up a possible DP. He complained to me about it.)