Major League Baseball is back in full swing (did you miss it?) and the Orioles and Red Sox suspensions have been issued. As you’d expect, MLB’s disciplinary actions were just as ridiculous as the incident itself.
To summarize, David Ortiz, who started the entire incident on an inside pitch, got four games along with Kevin Gregg. Mike Gonzalez got three games for throwing at Ortiz on Sunday after warnings had been issued to both teams, though the Orioles hadn’t hit anyone and had two of their players hit. Buck Showalter got one game for ordering Gonzo go hit Ortiz, which is ridiculous because the Orioles had been getting plunked all series. Jim Johnson and Jarrod Saltalamacchia were fined and John Lackey, who hit Markakis without a warning and Derrek Lee, was disciplined.
To summarize, Boston players started a fight on a pitch that never hit one of their players, then threw at the Orioles the next day, which caused warnings for Baltimore and when the Orioles finally retaliated their manager and relief pitcher get suspended. Absolutely laughable.
And what about Josh Beckett’s comments after the fight? “But if it’s just because we scored eight runs in the first inning and they’re going to throw at our [expletive] guys, it’s going to be a long year,” Beckett said. Sounds an awful lot like a threat and he didn’t even receive the slap on the wrist that Lackey got.
What a joke.
Zach, let’s be a bit more balanced.
While it’s true that more Orioles were hit during the series, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Gregg was clearly throwing at Ortiz, Gonzalez was clearly throwing at Ortiz. Lackey also hit at least one Oriole intentionally. The rest of the hit batsmen over the weekend, on both sides, were clearly accidental. So let’s start there.
Beckett’s comments are tame next to those of Showalter, Gregg and Gonzalez in terms of implying threats or escalation. Showalter was suspended where Francona wasn’t in part, I’m guessing, because the public way he shot off his mouth about the incidents.
I agree that Lackey should have been suspended as well. Both Ortiz and Gregg should have been tossed after the third pitch where he tried to hit him. But these incidents were started by Baltimore and this continual victim talk from Showalter isn’t helping anything.
This article is laughable. Did you even watch the games? Boston started the brawl? Gregg is a relief pitcher Baltimore never uses because they never have a chance to close a game, Ortiz is in the line-up everyday. The only thing laughable is Gregg wasn’t suspended 3 times as long as Ortiz.
@Laughable –
Yet another Dicky Eklund who sobered up enough from his smack habit to write into a Baltimore sports website. Why? Because the Lowell inhabitants are too stupid to start their own website.
This article is embarassing, and WAY past bias. Obviously, gregg or the O’s didn’t like ortiz’s trot or afterswing, and went after him. I would’ve done the same if I was ortiz. He warned the guy several times, only to be taunted by gregg after the 3-0 pop up. ALL players involved in the fight should’ve received 10 game suspensions, the others not so much. Free speech shouldn’t be punishable, since Ozzie Guillen ALWAYS has something to say, and never gets in trouble. Relief pitchers, for some reason, think they can throw at people without consequences. Here, gregg met those. Its obvious that either an O’s or yankees fan wrote this article…….
This article is written so poorly and doesn’t follow the truth about how the events went down. This reads more like a soicial network post than a news article. Writing such a biased, one-sided, article really takes away from the ligitity of your words. The fight was a fight, it was on tv, kids were watching. The MLB has to take firm action on issues like this in order to maintain pro baseball’s order.
@Carl
Funny stuff!!!
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@Joke –
So, some moron writes in to tell the writer how poorly written his article is and throws out the word “ligitity”?!?!
Who is this, George Bush?!?
You sir, are the “ligitity” of jokes!!!
Please.
The Orioles manager and players have had a chip on their shoulder about the Sox and their fans who are upholding Angelos’ ticket sales since BEFORE the season even began.
All one has to do is go back to the PRESEASON March 2011 GQ interview with Showalter that was almost WORD FOR WORD parrotted by Gregg in the postgame lockerroom last Friday night.
The O’s are the John Warnock Hinckley of Baseball. Obsessed losers.
We can’t have fighting in baseball, not when there are kids around. Now kids may think it’s smart to fight someone who makes you mad. Why were the fans cheering them on? They are role models. You teach your kids to be nice to people and they go out to a ballgame a see their heros tearing each other apart. They were cheering people to teach their kids to be mean. That doesn’t make sense at all. I wouldn’t cheer them on. If an Oriole ever charged I would boo him the reast of the season. These types of things must be stopped. GO O”S!
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I want say same think that Justin did. Go fighing in boxing ring not on baseball match.
Go Orioles!