Youklis charged the mound, so he gets five games.  Porcello has a little bit of deniability because all he did was hit him and then stand there looking extremely scared. So he gets five games…but really only one.

5 Games. You could shift around a bit and Porcello wouldn’t even have to miss a start.

Would you rather have a batting helmet thrown at you or take a fastball to the back? Porcello likely threw at Youk intentionally in silly retaliation for Cabrera getting hit by a pitch that was almost certainly not intentional. Both players acted stupidly and deserved to be suspended.

It is not at all likely that Porcello threw at Youk on purpose, that action at that time makes no sense; therefore, it likely is the wrong explanation.

The Tigers bullpen has been overworked, it was only the top of the 2nd, they are in a pennant race, and were up 3-0.  If there was going to be payback, it would have come later, probably by a pitcher they could afford to have suspended, and once the outcome of the game was all but decided.

...plus no one on the Tigers acted like the expected Youk to get hit, otherwise, Youk doesn’t make it Porcello in the first place.

Not to speak for Kevin, but I think Kevin’s point was that being hit someplace other than the head to send a message (from one person to another person) is more orchestrated than a bench-clearing brawl that has players on the ground, sucker-punches that cause injury to both parties, hands getting spiked, shoulders wrenched, etc.

Having been in a brawl like this I can attest that it is absolute chaos. Everyone is fair game.

While bench clearing brawls are not in the “unwritten rules” (slide hard at second, take your base on an HBP, protect your teammates, etc.) I agree they are a part of it. But certainly not as common as hockey. I’ve heard plenty of players “plan” on fighting, but I’ve never heard a baseball team plan on a brawl.

This is insane.  Thrown helmets have greater potential for pain than baseballs in the back?  That is a ridiculous statement if I have ever heard one.  Do I really need to go into Force Equals Mass X Acceleration?  And why “A” will always be far smaller for a helmet than for a baseball?

Slightly less ridiculous is the idea that Youkilis ought to have gotten a ten game suspension.

Reality Check:  Richie Sexson had a pitch thrown up near his head, charged the mound, threw his helmet (hitting Gabbard squarely in the back, he wasn’t injured in the least), and served a five game suspension.

The aspect of the whole incident that bothers me the most is the fact that the umpiring crew lost control of the situation.

Three batters had been plunked in the Monday night game—Cabrera, Youkilis, and Inge. Then Cabrera was hit by Tazawa.  At that point, Brian O’Nora should have issued warnings to both teams. My sense is that the pitch got away from Tazawa, but given the number of hit batsmen the night before, a warning certainly seems to have been in order.

Then Porcello, a pitcher who’d only hit one batter all season (coincidentally, it was Youkilis) begins throwing at Martinez.  Still no response from the umpires—not even after V-Mart took a couple of steps toward the mound and shouted at Porcello after striking out.

Then Youkilis gets hit.  I suspect this wouldn’t have happened and that all of today’s discussion would have been moot if the umpires hadn’t been so reluctant to act.

Now we have two players on contending teams facing five-day suspensions and who does that help? Certainly not the ballpark patron who bought tickets for those games.

Players have been killed, blinded and otherwise seriously injured by thrown balls…some of which, thrown at someplace other than the head or face, landed there anyway. However, I can find no instance of anyone, anywhere, being injured by a thrown helmet. The practice should be discouraged, yes. Arguing that a thrown helmet by an amateur helmet thrower (admittedly, there are no pro helmet-throwers) is more potentially deadly than a ball thrown by a professional pitcher is really, really silly.

Kevin S. said…

I said injury, not pain.  And you don’t need to go into F=ma, but you might want consider the possibility that a helmet chucked at a player could hit him in the face, while a ball in the back produces, at worst, a bruise.  That’s without even considering all the other fallout Randy spoke of.

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Are you saying Youk has a bigger possibility of hitting Porcello’s face with a helmet that didn’t end up touch him than Porcello hit Youk’s head with a 90mph fastball that ended up 5 inch away from his head??! Are you kidding me?

Even if the helmet hit Porcello’s face, it would have close to 0% possibility of causing serious injury. The chance of serious injury of baseball hit Youk’s face? About 100%.

You can certainly tell which of you are Boston fans.

just sayin’