from Amazon
Thursday, August 18, 2011
“That was for Duane Kuiper”
Pitchers protecting batters courtesy of the prince of Poz:
The Indians were playing the Twins, and at some point Rod Carew slashed Kuiper in a double play scenario at some point during the series. Duane was furious. He told Carew, “I’m going to come down the line and slash your achilles.” Jim Bibby calmed him down.
“Don’t worry,” Bibby said. “I’ll get him for you.”
Kuiper said, “OK, fine, you get him.” Only, Bibby did not get him. He got pulled before he had a chance to get him. If it’s the game I’m thinking, in 1977, Bibby lasted just five innings and Carew actually homered of him. Anyway, the point is Bibby didn’t get Carew that day for whatever reason, and unexpectedly that was the last time he ever faced Carew in a big league game. Bibby left Cleveland for Pittsburgh at the end of the season. So the story should be over. Kuiper basically forgot about it.
Only … one day, the Indians are facing Carew’s team, probably the Angels by then, and Carew comes over to Kuiper and says, “You little $&#$@$ …”
“What did I do?” Kuiper said.
And Carew said that he was playing an exhibition game in Japan. He stepped in against, yep, Jim Bibby. And suddenly he felt the jolt of a fastball pounding his side … this in an EXHIBITION GAME IN JAPAN.
And he said Jim Bibby flexed and said: “That was for Duane Kuiper.”
If you don’t institute some sort of penalty, then the participants will exact their own brand of justice. If you throw out a pitcher for every HBP, then you may affect the balance between batter-pitcher. If you leave it to the umpire to determine intent, there’s going to be gaps. You have a similar situation in hockey where if there are infractions that are missed by the referee, then anarchy may reign (escalation of stick fouls). That’s why you often get fights, as a payback to get a brand of justice (which may indeed be the lesser of two evils, that is a fight to defuse the situation, rather than an escalation of stick fouls).
Anyway, I like what soccer does with yellow and red cards. A HBP would be an automatic yellow card, regardless of intent. A certain number of yellow cards will lead to suspension. This is like your driving record. So after every game, you review the various plays, and a runner slashing the fielder would get a post-game yellow card, etc.
So, I’ll put it out there: we all don’t like the vigilante brand of justice. Therefore, what EQUAL OR BETTER system can you create that doesn’t require the players to police its opponents? And what may be the unintended consequences?