Jose Offerman punches Ump

[JJ]

Originally Posted by Kevin Finnerty

The worst thing you could possibly do is go to the ground. You know the term, getting the $hit kicked out of you? That's how you get it done to you, by going down. You do everything humanly possible to stay up and move. Everything. Watch Ali again sometime, or Sugar Ray Leonard. The main focus is to make 'em miss and move away.

It's more important to avoid cracked ribs or a shattered jaw or a skull fracture than to exaggerate the impact of a minor blow so that the eventual punishment to your attacker is worse. That's a horrible instinct. Get over that fast.

From MY experience, which is NOT in the Dominican Republic, I stand by my option to "go down and stay down". In 30+ years I've had my share of brawls to deal with, and have never been physically threatened where my safety was an issue (one of the benefits of living in the Midwest, I guess). In my judgement folks would be horrified seeing an umpire get knocked down, and that act would NOT escalate things. It would, however, yield much harsher penalties for the offender.

JJ