Games in Chicago must- see spectacles
Cubs manager Joe Maddon is an arrogant, condescending elitist, but we do have one thing in common.
“I can’t wait [ to play the Pirates again],” Maddon said last week.
I can’t wait to watch the games.
Maddon’s comment came off as a threat after Jordan Lyles threw consecutive pitches inside to Cubs shortstop Javier Baez and Clay Holmes later hit Cubs third baseman David Bote in the head when the teams played July 4 at PNC Park.
“It was getting way too out of control,” Maddon said. “They have their pitching philosophy. I appreciate inside. I don’t appreciate up and in. If they keep pitching like that, a lot of [ their] guys are not going to like their pitching staff.”
Maddon incited an already contentious history between the Pirates and Cubs. It goes back to Maddon’s flippant “plantar fasciitis” remark describing a potentially catastrophic knee injury to Jung Ho Kang in a game late in the 2015 season. Clint Hurdle added to the drama early last season when he criticized Baez for flipping his bat after popping out after hitting two home runs earlier in the game. “Where’s the respect for the game?” Hurdle growled. “The guy hits four homers in two days so that means you can take your bat and throw it 15, 20 feet in the air when you pop up like you should have hit your fifth home run?”
There was Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s slide that took out Elias Diaz’s knees at the plate later last season. There also was Baez taking offense to Joe Musgrove’s slide into second base two nights later.
I’m thinking the two teams don’t like each other.
So what do I expect will happen Friday afternoon when they play at Wrigley Field? Absolutely nothing. Maddon made sure of that with the comedic scene he put on after the second inside pitch to Baez. He charged out of the Cubs dugout and appeared headed toward Hurdle. Maddon made sure he didn’t get there, allowing himself to be intercepted by home- plate umpire Joe West. Maddon is no fool. Hurdle would have annihilated him.
Who wouldn’t want to see that?
By playing the fool in an apparent attempt to fire up his underachieving team, Maddon made sure the umpires will be on high alert Friday afternoon. The last thing the Cubs need is for Yu Darvish to hit a Pirates batter intentionally and be thrown out of the game. Despite their $ 211 million payroll, the Cubs go into the game with a 47- 43
record, just 2 ½ games ahead of the poor, little Pirates. There has been plenty of speculation Maddon will be fired if the Cubs don’t turn around their season soon.
Maddon wasn’t the first opposing manager to accuse the Pirates of pitching dangerously inside.
“We know they’ll do it intentionally,” Cincinnati’s David Bell said after a game May 29 when Holmes hit Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez with a pitch with the Pirates leading, 7- 0. Earlier in the season, Chris Archer threw behind Reds second baseman Derek Dietrich after Dietrich admired a home run. Archer was suspended for five games.
Bell issued his own threat after Suarez was hit.
“It’s unfortunate that our players aren’t going to get protected. That’s been made clear. [ Reds players] need to protect themselves with any means necessary. We’ve got to take matters into our own hands. Whatever that takes.”
The Pirates and Reds next play July 29- 31 in Cincinnati.
Pirates pitchers have hit 40 batters this season, seventhmost in baseball. They are hitting fewer batters than they did in 2013- 15 when they led baseball each season, but their reputation precedes them. Remember how Atlanta Braves third baseman Josh Donaldson reacted when he was barely grazed by an inside pitch from Musgrove in a game May 10?
Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage has denied his pitchers intentionally try to hit batters but said they will continue to pitch inside. They have no choice, he said. They have to pitch inside to have any chance of being successful.
And if the other team doesn’t like it?
Let me guess what Searage and his pitchers are thinking:
Tough.