An eye for an eye...or should I say a pitch for a pitch?

Last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Milwaukee Brewers. Both teams are playing with playoff implecations. The Dodgers are leading the National League West while the Brewers are fighting to stay alive in both the National League Central and the Natiional League Wildcard races. The end result, 17-4, does not jump off the page as a "great game." Certainly not the pitchers duel or the good ole slug fest. But after the game, they almost was a physical slug fest. In the 7th inning, Manny Ramirez was at bat and got beaned by Brewers' pitcher Chris Smith. Some may remember that Manny was a "pitcher's target" last October when the Philadelphia Phillies and the Dodgers met in the National League Championship Series. But back to last night, Manny was not the only guy hit last night. In the top of 9th, Guillermo Mota was pitching for the Dodgers to Prince Fielder. However, the ball swerved into Fielder's leg and all hell was about to break lose. Fielder, understandly looked angered, did not lose it until after the game. Here see for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuoA-d3xiHo.

My focus on not really on the after the game antics, but the whole "beanball" mentality in baseball. Earlier this year, the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays were involved in a similar incident. Division rivals are natuarally going to breed heated games especially in the ultra-tough American League East division. Rays third baseman, Evan Longoria got beamed in the game. What would follow? Naturally, Rays pitcher Matt Garza had to get payback for his teammate and give Yankees first baseman Mark Teixera some "chin music" with the ball. Luckily, in all of these incidents no one has been hurt besides the bumps and bruises. Garza was fined for his actions. He admitted to hitting Teixera on purpose; something that I doubt would too surprising to anyone. This type of behavior and actions are not new to baseball. It has something I have noticed over several years. It seems to be one of those "codes of the game." I have heard individuals like Chicago White Sox manager, Ozzie Guillen, express his feelings on the topic saying that if someone hits one of my guys, I will have one of my pitchers return the favor.

It got me to thinking about this topic and I came across an article titled, "To Bean or Not to Bean- That is the Question." In it, the unofficial history of "beanball" is mentioned and throughly referenced. Like I said, this type of mentality isn't as old as the steroid era. "Beanball" seems to go back as far as the Teddy Roosevelt administration and the turn of the century. "An Unofficial History of The Beanball" by Dan Holmes tells a narrative of sorts of the art of the intential hit batter. Baseball pundints talk much about the Chicago Cubs and how they haven't won a World Championship since 1908. Well, back during those years of Cub success one of their big bats, first baseman Frank Chance, was a target of pitchers. His approach at the plate generated some pitchers to come at him hard inside...and would from time to time hit him. Like Fielder, famed Hall of Fame Detroit Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb was the victim of a tough inside pitch against the then New York Giants and decided to go look for some payback against Buck Herzog of the Giants, which resulted in bedlam.

When you have a ball coming at a player there is the chance for more than an injury or rage to follow. In 1920, there was a little known incident involving Cleveland shortshop Ray Chapman. Chapman was hit in the head by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays on August 16, 1920. All seemed okay shortly after but Chapman soon collapsed and would be dead by day's end. Later that decade, the Chicago Cubs formed a three man "firing squad" in their rotation with Guy Bush, Pat Malone, and Charlie Root, who all were known for intimidating opposing batters. Another Hall of Famer, Mickey Cochrane, of the Tigers had his skull fractured in game the late 1930s that expediated his retirement shortly after the incident. Old time pitcher, Burleigh Grimes, took pleasure in seeing opposing batters with their faces in the dirt from a hit or dogging a pitch. Pitchers Bobo Newsom, Schoolboy Rowe, Hugh Casey, Jack Hallett, Johnny Sain, and Allie Reynolds all felt that the use of the "beanball" was as important as the fastball or curveball or slider in their bag of tricks. Two Hall of Fame pitchers, Juan Marichal and Sandy Koufax, were involved in one of the most prolific incidents in the last 50 years on August 22, 1965. Marichal's Giants and Koufax's Dodgers were heated rivals and still are, but at that time they were in the midst of a close division race. Like a Yankees-Red Sox game of today, temperatures were high and a "beanball" would lead to a melee. Marichal knocked down a couple of Dodgers and when he came up to face Koufax, the Dodgers' catcher Johnny Roseboro decided to throw the ball back to Koufax with it grazing Marichal. Koufax was not a known "head-hunter" and it was his battery mate that spurred the outlast. Needless to say, a brawl ensued after the incident. Oddly enough, Roseboro sued Marichal after the incident and WON. It wasn't some big amount, but still. Can you imagine that happening today? I doubt it would go very far.

Another pitcher, Stan "Big Daddy" Williams, while with the Dodgers had a clause in his contract that if he limited or cut down on his walks; he would get a bonus. So what did Williams do? Well if he fell into a 3-0 count, he would hit the batter to avoid getting charged with a walk. Quite crafty. When told to intentially walk the former Home Run king, Hank Aaron, Williams decided to hit him instead to not risk that bonus money. Can't blame him I guess....he just wanted to get paid. I am sure if the Dodgers knew he was going to do that they wouldn't have put the pressure on Williams. Since the early in 1970s, new developments such as the designated hitter position, we have seen less incidents overall involving the beanball. But the "beanball" mentality continued throughout the 1970s with a 1973 incident with the Red Sox's Bill Lee and the Brewers' Ellie Rodriquez, a 1976 incident with the Cubs and Giants, and a 1976 Reggie Jackson incident aginst Dock Ellis. Bruce Kison, in 1977, went in hard on Mike Schmidt, of the Phillies, and broke one of Schmidt's fingers. Kison used the beanball on others as well including Greg Luzinski and Buddy Bell. In 1979, Mike Jorgenson, of the Texas Rangers, could have ended up like Ray Chapman after he was hit in the head by Red Sox pitcher Andy Hassler. Luckily, the pain Jorgenson was feeling led him to get checked out and a small blood clot was discovered, which saved his life.

Momentum continued to grow throughout the later decades of the 20th century, yet "beanball" was not completely gone. Some didn't like the fact that "a weapon" was taken away from pitchers with the art of the inside pitch. Incidents continued to occur. Andrew Dawson was hit by Padres' pitcher Eric Snow in 1987 and had to receive stitches to his face. Batters started to begin to feel "mad as hell and they weren't going to take it." I just saw on tv yesterday a clip of the famous 1993 incident involving Robin Ventura of the Dodgers and Nolan Ryan of the Rangers. A couple years later, Kirby Puckett was hit so hard he broke his jaw and an artery burst in his mouth. Some of the best pitchers of all time have links to being a headhunter or "beanball" pitcher. A list of hall of famers and potential hall of famers include Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Early Wynn, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Pedro Martinez, and Roger Clemens. Hall of Fame managers such as Leo Durocher and Walt Alston were known to order ptichers to knock down opposing hitters.

So, here we are on August 5th, 2009. Guys are still pitching. Guys are still intimidating. Guys are still getting hit. Baseball has evolved over the years with different changes, but the "beanball" seems to transcend all the years. I am not saying that pitchers shouldn't challenge batters. Or maybe brush them off the plate with a tough inside pitch. I'm conflicted with the whole art of hitting a batter though. If someone hit one of my teammates, I would most likely be inclined to return the favor to one of their batters. If they want to target my main guy, I want to get their main guy the same treatment. What happened with Prince Fielder will continue to probably happen for many more years to come. The only thing I hope for is that the balls are aimed low enough so that we don't ever have a Ray Chapman incident again. As long as this is limited in baseball then things should continue to be about what matters: the games and the fans who come to see good, clean games. There are several pitchers who have the audacity to hit batters; fairly or not, why don't I hit back at the whole thing with some audacity of Covin.