Baseball fights rule. We all know that. Usually though, they're not simply a result of a batter taking too long. But that was the case last night, as Doug Mientkiewicz teed off Randy Johnson by taking too long in the batter's box. Basically, Doug (we're not friends, I'm just trying to save my CTRL button) stepped out of the batter's box as Johnson was winding up. This angered the tall, mulletted gentlemen who has killed small animals with baseballs before. (Shocking, I know.) And the result was an empyting of dugouts sans any actual violence. Unless you count the words. They were kind of violent, even later on (emph. mine).
'It didn't really bother me at all,' Johnson said. 'If it would have, he'd probably be in a stretcher and I'd be out of the game.'That is so sad on so many levels. First of all, poor Doug and the only so many at bats statement. Sheesh. And Unit just comes off as psychotic at this point, since, you know, he basically said he would send Mientkiewicz to the hospital if he ever angered the tall fella.
[...]Said Mientkiewicz: 'I just wanted to get set in the box. I don't get many at-bats, and I want to make the most of them. But I also understand that he's going through the delivery there.'
Or maybe the Pirates knew this would knock Unit off of his game just threw Doug to the wolves. Either way, the lesson, as always, is not to do anything that would cause you to get in the way of Randy Johnson's fastball.
