The beaning and altercations in last nights game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants was misdirected retaliation. I do not agree with how the Diamondbacks and their announcers handled and interrupted the situation.
I will explain why but first let's recap the series of events.
Jean Segura leads off the game for the Diamondbacks with a first pitch home run off of Giant's Jeff Samardzija. Samardzija then gives up another run in the top of the first.
As a Giants fan, I'm thinking, "Oh great here we go again, Jeff get it together."
To his credit he did. He went on to shut down the Arizona offense for the rest of his time on the mound.
During Segura's next at bat, the Giants throw inside on him and hit him in the elbow, and I will say I bet that hurt a lot. When I watch Segura play, I notice he sticks his elbow out over the palate. Not shocking he got beaned. I do not feel it was intentional.
Side note: I live in Arizona currently, the Phoenix area, I subscribe to MLB's At Bat so I can watch my Giants play and I can hear the nostalgic play-by- play calls from the great Duane Kuiper and Mike Krakow. Much like myself, they call it how it is. That's refreshing to me. However, when the Giants play against the Diamondbacks I'm blacked out and can only watch them on local broadcast with Diamondback announcers.
Arizona Announcers, Steve Berthiaume and Tom Candiotti reacted with Segura getting hit by bringing up how Segura was beaned in the same exact spot in the previous game playing the San Diego Padres and has a history of being beaned.
Looking at the replay, I see Segura leaning over the plate like usual, the Giants try to pitch him inside. He hits hit. Shocking! Well Folks, That's Baseball! I think, "Oh well, take your base." The Giants get out of the inning and come to bat.
Buster Posey comes up for the Giants. Patrick Corbin is pitcher for the Diamondbacks.
Corbin throws one inside on Posey that makes him have to move his feet. I think nothing of it, Posey thinks nothing of it. The next pitch is behind Posey. The rest of the stadium, including Posey and myself are thinking 'What the heck, man!'
The home plate umpire immediately comes out and warns the pitcher and both dugouts. Manager of the Giants, Bruce Bochy comes tearing out of the dugout to argue. Why they are being warned since they have done nothing? He may have said some not so nice words because he was ejected pretty quick.
Diamondback announcers being narrow sighted, proceed to say good for Corbin, thats how you protect your players. Um, what? Are you kidding me? Protect from what? Do they not watch baseball? Do they not know anything about who they are playing?
The Giants are not a team who will bean a player after a home run. That's not how Bochy coaches his teams. The Giants don't need to bean you they will just beat you.
Ding Ding Ding.... Here is the meat of the issue. It's not about the Giants, it's not about the Padres, it's about the Pirates.
The announcers reference, earlier in their season, when the Diamondbacks played the Pirates and how they kept getting beaned by them. I know exactly what they are talking about.
For, at least, the past two seasons the Pittsburgh Pirates and Diamondbacks have had a mini bean ball war. This season, the Pirates straight punked the Diamondbacks and Arizona did absolutely nothing about it. They received criticism.
Now up a big dose of Misdirected Retaliation:
In consecutive games, this one against San Francisco and the other against San Diego, Segura has been beaned in the elbow. The Diamondbacks chose not to do anything against San Diego, but felt they needed to prove a point against San Francisco.
The Diamondbacks throw at not only, the Giant's best player, but one of the faces of the league.
I am not sure who made the decision to throw at a Giants player but it makes the coaches, the players, and the announcers look like poor sports.
Hey Diamondbacks, now is not the right time to get even. You had your chance in Pittsburgh to set things straight, but you chose not to.
This seems like a case, where said guy, experienced being bullied over and over again. He chooses not to or doesn't know how to stand up to the bully in the moment. Later on, being sensitive to the past experience, said guy is in the grocery store and someone bumps his cart. It triggers him and brings back the same feelings. He misunderstands the situation. Not wanting to make the same mistakes, he overreacts at the unintentional bump. He misdirects his anger and frustration of past events. I say this with the utmost respect for people who have been bullied. Myself included.
Giants fans get the last laugh on this one. What you can only hope happens, does! Brandon Crawford comes to bat for the Giants, directly after Posey was walked. He crushes a two run home run! The Giants tie the game and go on to beat Arizona 6-2. Karma at it's finest. Now that is how you retaliate!
Hopefully, that gave Brochy a chuckle.
No comments:
Post a Comment