Friday, April 25, 2014

Retaliation: Why Pitchers Are The Most Sensitive Athletes In All Of Sports


At this point, this has gotten pretty ridiculous. Every week it's something new, last week it was the Carlos Gomez/Gerrit Cole incident. This week it's Paul Clemens and Jed Lowrie.

Let me start out by saying that I understand that throwing at hitters is a baseball move that is similar to fighting in hockey. It's a way of the players policing themselves, but I believe this practice has gotten way out of hand. Pitchers are throwing at hitters for every little thing now, like when they get mad at hitters for admiring their home run, or bunting in a blowout. Both of these cases are sore loser acts. If you're so mad that a batter pimped his home run shot, then don't hang that flat slider to a great hitter like that. Same goes for bunting, in the case of Jed Lowrie, Lowrie tried to bunt for a hit because the Astros were executing an "over-shift," which just asks for a bunt down the third base line, no matter the score.

The only time a pitcher should throw at a hitter is when the opposing team has tried to intimidate that pitcher's hitters with inside pitching. That is part of the game. That is how the players police themselves, and that is definitely not a case of being sensitive.

Ironically, I have long admitted that I am a "semi-modern" baseball fan who supports the DH (and calls the pitcher batting rule: outdated and ridiculous), and isn't a fan of interleague play. The only reason why I'd want the DH abolished, is just so pitchers can get a taste of their own medicine by having balls thrown at them.

Please discuss in the comments.

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