Looks like the game in question was July 25, 1990:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199007250.shtml

Canseco hit a 3-run homer off of Blyleven in the 1st; Bert plunked him the next time he came up in the 2nd. What Bert doesn’t mention is that Canseco took him deep again in the 4th. Whoops.

Great article.  Thanks for linking to it.

The real question is, did he Cadillac around the bases after that homer in the fourth, or did he put his head down and run?

“Well, in the next at-bat he goes deep off me again, a rocket to straight-away center field. But at least this time he ran around the bases.”

Bert made his point :D

No Ray, of course pitchers can’t always strike out batters when they intend to.  But if Bert couldn’t K Canseco, then I guess he wasn’t as good as Canseco.  That’s the point of sports, right?  To see who’s better? 

Plus, Bert didn’t even try to get Canseco out.  He intentionally put him on base, thus hurting his team for the sake of his personal pride.  When Rickey Henderson did things like that, he got raked over the coals.

Where’s the line?  So it’s OK - in fact, it’s laudable - for Bert to throw a ball at Canseco as hard as he can with full intent to hit Canseco in the chest (a location containing a little something called the heart; pretty important body part and, although well protected, not exactly impervious).  Would it be OK for Bert to tackle Canseco on his way around the bases?  Or punch him in the face?  How about Canseco?  Given that Bert threw at him intentionally, would it have been OK for Canseco to charge the mound to fight Bert?

Kardo, what “point” did Bert make?  That he, at 39, was nowhere near as good as Canseco?  What if Bert’s beanball fired Canseco up, giving him extra juice (pun intended) go hit a homer in his 3rd AB.  Was Bert’s “message” worth giving up at least one run, hurting his team?

The point is that if Canseco had hit the home run and just headed out off his trot it would have been no big deal. Blyleven didn’t plunk Canseco for being better, he plunked Canseco for showing him up. Which, well, don’t be a dick and you won’t get hit by stuff. That’s the point.

(and ben, it doesn’t say anywhere that Blyleven was throwing “as hard as he could”)

As a matter of fact, it did lead to a run which made the score 5-0. The HBP came with a man on first and 1 out. A walk followed and then a sacrifice fly.