Headhunting is no way to respond
I could devote this entire column to a simple, undisputable fact.
The Los Angeles Dodgers exited Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night the same way they entered Tuesday: 2017 World Series losers.
Instead, I will take the high road. No fanboy homerism.
No soft pandering to the local masses. No willful ignorance of the life- and family-changing danger that a crazy 96 mph fastball represents when it is intentionally thrown behind the head of an unsuspecting professional hitter.
Los Angeles’ Joe Kelly could have sent the Astros’ Alex Bregman to the hospital Tuesday if the Dodgers reliever had been a little more accurate. Paused Bregman’s career. Damaged his eyesight, face or brain.
Maybe something even worse. For what?
To be Twitter famous for a couple days?
Kelly’s name was trending when Dustin May faced Cristian Javier in the first inning Wednesday. But he was topped by Donald Trump, Notre Dame, Beyoncé and Sonny Gray by the time it was 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth.
The 15 minutes were almost up. And Kelly had already been suspended for eight games (pending appeal) by Major League Baseball for basically taking one for a team he didn’t play for when it mattered.
No wonder the sport’s popularity continues to waver. Baseball still can’t figure out how to properly promote Mike Trout, but a journeyman reliever with a career 3.91 ERA is turned by some into a social-media hero.
The only real, lasting change if that wildly rising and tailing 96 mph fastball had connected with its intended target?
Kelly — who never threw a pitch or wore a uniform for the 2017 Dodgers — could have forever changed Bregman’s life.
The sixth-inning reliever wasn’t a hero. He was a temporary pawn, somehow standing in the middle of two opposing franchises and MLB’s most damaging scandal since the steroid era. With googly eyes and a triggered tongue.
Michael Brantley, Myles Straw, Kyle Tucker, Martín Maldonado, Zack Greinke and nine rookie pitchers on Dusty Baker’s active roster had nothing to do with the 2017 Astros.
Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, Joc Pederson and Chris Taylor didn’t throw a punch or even fake a legitimate move when finally given an opportunity more than six months in the making.
A golden “World Series Champions 17” banner was still attached to the left-field light pole after the Dodgers completed a two-game sweep with a 4-2 victory in 13 innings Wednesday night.
“Joe Kelly threw a ball behind Bregman’s head on 3-0 on purpose,” said Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., before the series finale. “Not only did he take it upon himself to, I guess, send a message, but he wasn’t even part of the team during that (2017) season. We knew coming into the game that he likes to go off script. It is what it is. It was done unprofessionally. What he did after he punched out Correa was unprofessional. Running into the dugout was unprofessional. So it is what it is.”
The blood is always waiting to come out, right?
That’s how it goes in America. Even in our surreal modern world sports world, with professional leagues in protective bubbles and baseball stadiums across the country blanketed with rows of empty seats, anger and violence are just around the bend.
MLB is one coronavirus outbreak away from shutting down its once-in-a-lifetime 60-game season. Masks, hand sanitizer and social distancing are all the rage. Player health and safety are paramount.
Unless what’s left of the 2017 Astros* is hosting what’s left of a team that lost Game 7 of that year’s World Series in its ballpark.
Astros fans spent the slow buildup to Wednesday’s contest destroying Kelly and making fun of his childish bully tactics that followed the fastball fired near Bregman’s head.
Dodgers fans and Astros haters lionized a nine-year reliever who was a member of the 2018 world champion Boston Red Sox.
The same Boston team that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said illegally stole signs on its way toward a shining trophy. Just like the 2017 Astros. “Who says it’s supposed to happen against the Dodgers?” said Baker, who played for the Dodgers from 1976-83. “The Dodgers didn’t say it, I don’t think. It’s mostly the media or mostly the internet or the tweets or whatever it is.”
No one was hit or thrown at Wednesday. Social media must have already obtained its required pound of flesh.
“Quite frankly, I’m tired of talking about it, to tell you the truth,” Baker said. “This is big news, but it’s over now.”
Wearing pregame “Fire Manfred” T-shirts would have been more effective than everything the Dodgers did. And the commissioner who in January didn’t have the power to strip away the Astros’ only world title was forced in July to publicly back the Astros because of the life-changing danger inherent in an intentionally misfired pitch.
Hate, criticize and vilify the Astros all you want. They said many times, many ways they cheated. Scream, boo or bang on trash cans, if that’s your thing, whenever you’re allowed back into a stadium.
But throwing 96 mph behind the human head is a real-life tragedy waiting to happen.
MLB got it right by standing up for the 2020 Astros and sending a message in Kelly’s name.