Let the Bats Fly

   Baseball, America's past time, a sport that is engraved in the nation's DNA is still alive and well. It wont die out anytime soon.Now I must admit as a child baseball was not my first choice, but as time continued to move forward and I matured just a bit, baseball has become a lot more interesting to me. It did help that a professor that I looked up to assigned the college class baseball related assignments. I appreciate and respect the sport. As a younger little person I enjoyed playing the game, yet watching the major league games was dreadful to my short attention spanned mind. Now I can watch the occasional regular season game and stay tuned in for the most part. There have been a few incidents in the past few weeks that has brought up the debate about baseball's unspoken rules. Plenty of sports writers and pundits have given their two cents on the topic. The incidents that has given 24 hour sports news outlets material is accredited to major league pitchers intentionally hitting the opposing team's batter. There a few circumstances that merit a batter from receiving a "deserving" fastball to the body.
   One incident could be if a player, say like Manny Machado, who slid into second with his cleats up hitting and in this instance hurting the field player on the opposing team. The opposing team's pitcher who is looking out for his teammate here throws a 90 mph fastball to Machado when its he is up to bat. Machado takes the hit and walks to first. It was expected. Now this particular series between the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox was intense from the start. Multiple factors played into this series turning into an emotional fiery exchange between two AL East teams. Chris Sale decided to join in on he fun and aim for Manny Machado's back side the following game. Machado did not take to kindly to Sale's self imposed unwritten rule regulator.
  A second incident for a major league player to be hit by a pitch is if they flip their bat. To clarify, if a batter hits a home run and flips his bat, the pitcher can take that as show boating, offensive, and even somehow disrespecting the game. The next time that same batter is up at the plate fans, players, coaches and even the umpires know what's going to happen.
   There are a few more unspoken rules in baseball that can lead the discussion to continue on for days, but the issue is not about the unspoken rules. Sports in general have a variety of certain rules or etiquette that are followed in that particular sport. The issue I take part with baseball is how it allows players to solve these issues on their own in a very dangerous manner. I question whether certain sports fans or people in general lack a basic understanding in fundamental physics. This is a hard spherical object that is being launched at 90 miles per hour at a human body. I am not sure what else is needed to explain that getting hit by anything tends to hurt especially if it's coming at you at such a high speed.
   The league tends to no get involved nor implements any rules or policies to prevent pitchers from intentionally hitting a batter. The occasional home plate umpire might read the situation and throw out the pitcher, but no suspension or fine will follow. My solution, have batters throw their bats at the pitchers that intentionally hit them. This way it becomes like a western stand off, a duel, but instead of it being bullets it can be replaced by a bat and baseball. This solution works out great for two reasons. First reason is that if batters throw their bats at pitchers, the pitcher might think a bit longer before he acts on throwing a baseball 90 mph at a person with a bat. Second reason, the entertainment value will dramatically increase! Move over UFC and WWE baseball is here with some real action. Or, just bare with me here, pitchers can stop throwing fastballs at batters and learn to control their temper tantrums a bit more. I prefer the former, but like I mentioned before baseball isn't my first choice go to sport. I haven't watched enough to gauge a better feel for the game. But I do know stupid when I see it.

The Good Ol Days.....

    The world of sports experienced a familiar reminiscent dose of racism this past week. Two players in particular were at the receiving end of the abuse. Sulley Muntari and Adam Jones.

   

   Sulley Muntari, the 32 year old Ghanaian midfielder plays for Pescara in Italy's Series A. On 30 April 2017, Pescara visited Cagliari. The score ended 1-0 in favor of the home team, but the interesting aspect of this particular game was the incident that occurred towards the end of the match. Sulley Muntari heard fans chant racial slurs that were directed towards him. Muntari went up to the referee to let him know what he had heard. In Italy, due to the level of visible racism in the soccer stadiums the league has intended to combat this by implementing procedures to eradicate this buffoonery. The first step is that the referee states a warning over the stadium's speaker system. If the racist chants have not stopped the match is stopped. If needed the match can be abandoned. On Sunday none of these counter measurements were implemented by Daniele Minelli, the center referee for the match. Muntari was booked for complaining to the referee about what he heard. Muntari ended up walking of the pitch before disappearing into the players tunnel he looked into the stands slapping his forearm with his opposite hand to indicate that This is me, This is my color. For his humanistic response to such vile abuse Muntari was shown a second yellow card, therefore receiving a red for walking off the pitch without permission. Indicating that he will be suspended for the next game. Daniele Minelli, "the altruist", thought it would be fitting to have Muntari suspended and to sit out the next game in order to avoid being racially abuse for a second consecutive week. As of today at this time the Series A disciplinary committee has overturned Muntari's suspension. That same committee cannot punish the fans or the home team due to it's own rules, only 10 people were involved and therefore not reaching the minimum 1% of the fans needed to be racist in the stadium in order to act on a disciplinary action. 

  Without missing a beat, the day after, across the pond where baseball is played, in the civil rights proud ground breaking the color barrier America's historical past time, descended into the twilight zone. The Boston Red Sox hosted the Baltimore Orioles. Adam Jones, Baltimore's center fielder, witnessed fans shouting racial slurs and targeted by a peanut tosser. The next day Adam Jones was given a standing ovation by the Boston crowd during his first at bat. The Red Sox's front office came out in defense and support for Adam Jones and condemned anyone who used racial slurs in Fenway park, threatening that they will be banned for life (Which they stood by, a few fans have been band). I believe that the Red Sox organization handled the situation as best as possible. The troubling aspect of this was not the Red Sox organization or the league, but what one former baseball analyst said. Curt Schilling said that Adam Jones created a situation. That he needed proof in order to believe that Jones was being targeted with racial abuse. Schilling's defended his outrageous claim by citing that he has heard his black teammates use the N-word 100 million times and went on twitter to some how demonstrate proof that based on the artist and music a person listen's to is an indicator of what should or shouldn't be offensive to them.

   The troubling aspect in these two similar events isn't the big leagues or the front office of the teams, however, I do believe the Italian FA did act in a molasses manner towards a situation that should have been resolved the next day. What is worrisome is the individuals with certain power and authority are yielding towards inaction rather than any action. As I mentioned before the the leagues and front office of the teams did their part in a swift, respectful and not over reaching manner. No one was unfairly punished. Muntari had his suspension over turned and the Red Sox organization warned their fans or any other visitor about their zero tolerance racial abuse policy (and kept true to their threat). So what astonishes me the most is that men like Curt Schilling demand proof for such horrendous acts. Why? As a self-proclaimed person of science I believe that facts should be observed and results questioned and analyzed. But, in this situation what is the purpose of questioning and demanding proof from Adam Jones? To call him a liar and diva seeking attention because racism doesn't exist in sports and in particularly baseball? I am curious to why then stadiums across the United States honor the number 42. As for the Italian referee, Daniele Minelli, what if Muntari was lying? Would announcing over the stadium's speaker system to remind the fans that racism has no place in the soccer world cause such a PR uproar? Minells's inaction and Schilling's support for inaction unless someone personally provides proof to him directly is an indication that there is plenty of work needed to be done to combat racism in sports and in our communities. There have been great strides across the global sporting community to eliminate those with racist mentalities from barring into stadiums to spew their filth onto others. Yet, we need to vigilante amongst our own sporting communities that particular individuals are not fueling racism with inaction and denial.