BIG-GAME HUNTER
Longer ban would send real message to pitchers looking to settle old scores
HUNTER Strickland had nearly three years to decide whether to fire a deadly object in the direction of Bryce Harper, who had perhaps three seconds to decide how to retaliate.
Their punishments, therefore, should have reflected the difference between years and seconds, the difference between being the instigator and being the retaliator, the difference between hurling a deadly weapon and hurling a batting helmet (poorly) and fists, and the difference between their job descriptions, as well.
Strickland got six games — more than the standard four given to relievers in such situations. Harper got four games, fewer than is often handed out when a hitter charges a mound. Yet, it still feels wrong.
Harper plays every day. He bats four or more times. He is the No. 3 hitter. To remove him from even one game is a hardship for the Nationals.
Strickland had not pitched in a week before he decided to peg Harper with a 98-mph fastball. Essentially, he was banned for the same period of time.
Therefore, the punishment did not fit the crime or the roles.
For every game Harper got, Strickland should have gotten 10. That would have been both equitable and delivered a message that this on-field vigilantism must stop.
Rob Manfred and his lieutenants talk a good game about wanting to end the act of pitchers purposefully throwing a ball at another human. But I am not buying it.
First, as repulsive as he and his office might find the behavior, this commissioner is obsessed with elevating the popularity of the game. And like it or not, we are talking baseball today because Strickland is 28 years old going on 2. ESPN opened ‘Sports Center’ Sunday night with an extended segment on the Strickland-Harper incident and subsequent brawl rather than Tiger Woods’ arrest or the first game of the Stanley Cup final. What other midseason baseball story would have had a chance to do that?
Second, and more important, the commissioner has shown he does not want to set a precedent on this matter and take on the union in a grievance, and likely lose because precedent matters in a hearing room. But principle should matter more to Manfred — win or lose.
I believe in unions and defending your members’ rights, but in this case, MLB should have forced the Players Association to do so and live with the hypocrisy of essentially not defending Harper. Better yet — perhaps like with domestic abuse or performance-enhancing drugs — the commissioner should have invested his office so firmly on an issue as to compel both sides to negotiate and agree jointly for stiffer penalties on what are deemed purposeful plunkings.
For the idea that the players can police themselves is outdated nonsense.
Police themselves?
Really? How did that policing go Sunday in San Francisco? Strickland said he was just trying to pitch inside. Except he had not hit a batter since last Aug. 21. And he just happened to hit the batter who faced him twice in a 2014 Division Series, homering twice, and with whom he had a stare-down contest on each occasion. This was the first time the two had met since and, what a coincidence, there’s a firstpitch fastball straight to the hip.
So please, take the “pitch got away” blather out of here. This was what Boston’s Matt Barnes offered last month when he threw the most errant pitch he had ever thrown to a righty batter, and it just happened to be at the head of Manny Machado, who the Red Sox were furious at for what appeared to be an accidental spiking of Dustin Pedroia.
Pedroia then yelled to Machado that he had nothing to do with this. The version of that action this time was the Giants’ Buster Posey not doing the standard catcher thing of jumping in front of the hitter after a plunking, but rather standing idly and allowing Harper a free pass to reach Strickland. Pedroia and Posey are two of the most respected players in the game. I would take their unique reactions as testimony that logical players want this to end.
Because, again, how is the player policing going? Does anyone on the Giants feel better today that Harper
was hit? Did Strickland now put San Francisco’s best player at risk of being drilled by a National — that would be Posey, by the way?
Players such as Harper, Machado and Jose Bautista give off a vibe that just seems to bring out the worst in opposing pitchers. But arrogance cannot be a reason to hurl a baseball at another person. Harper was ultimately hit for doing his job — hitting homers off of Strickland. What was Strickland doing that is all that different from a street punk exacting revenge — carrying a grudge nearly three years? It is one thing if Harper had literally hit Strickland or one of his teammates. But all he did was hit the baseball.
MLB and the union have come together to try to improve player safety with home-plate collisions and double-play pivots. It is time for joint action here, as well.
Six games is a start, better than four. But not enough to serve as a deterrent for the next time.