Keeping track of beanball feuds can be complicated. Tuesday night, after the Dodgers finished drubbing the Brewers, Prince Fielder walked off the field and directly toward the Dodgers clubhouse, intent upon committing some unspecified act of violence against Guillermo Mota (or perhaps just yelling really loudly at him). This was a result of Mota's plunking of Fielder in the ninth inning of a 17-4 Dodger win, which was actually preceded by the Brewers' beaning Manny Ramirez in the seventh. Mota has made a career of throwing at sluggers and getting chased around the field by them, as with his beaning of Mike Piazza in spring training 2002 led to Piazza leaping out of the Mets dugout and choking Mota, which led to a follow-up incident in spring training 2003 in which Mota fled the mound after an enraged Piazza charged him following another beaning.
The Brewers, meanwhile, completely overreact to even the smallest perceived slights and are known to carry grudges across the better part of a season for issues that most would've forgotten. Combining Mota with his former team has apparently created a perfect storm.
The instinct in this situation is to take sides. You might want to say that Mota's shown a clear pattern of throwing at people and ducking the consequences. You might say that Fielder would pick a fight with a hotel attendant if said attendant tossed a room key softly at him.
The truth is that there are no sides to pick here. Mota's a hothead. There's no reason to throw at anyone in a 17-4 game. But then, the Brewers are brats. Why should Fielder be surprised he got beaned when Ramirez was plunked two innings before, after a homer and three RBI? The game wasn't close in the seventh, either, and it seems pretty obvious the Brewers were sending a message.
There's no right and wrong in a situation that's slightly less mature than a playground fight between fourth graders.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-05-2009 @ 11:48AM
Papa said...
Fielder was not beaned. He got hit in the side, not the head.
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8-05-2009 @ 12:00PM
marcus said...
This article is not accurate. Manny Ramirez was never hit by a pitch. He was nearly grazed in the hand. Smith was not even close to being ejected.
What the Dodgers did was idiotic. You don't plunk a guy when you up 17-3 in retaliation for something the Phillies did to you last season. if Fielder is not wearing a cup, and most players do not these days, that pitch might have been more dangerous that just a bruise on the thigh.
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8-05-2009 @ 12:06PM
Matt Snyder said...
Box score shows hit-by-pitch. You can spin it however you want, but it will be "inaccurate" to claim Manny wasn't hit by a pitch.
8-05-2009 @ 12:23PM
tyler tess said...
Yeah, but there is alot that shows up in a box score that doesn't accurately describe what really happened. None of this was truly beanball. Nobody threw at anyone's head. Mannnywood got grazed and Juan Pierre got plunked by a bad pitch. Neither plunk was intentional according to the umps and the replays confirmed it. Mota on the other hand, well. Mota is Mota.
8-05-2009 @ 12:15PM
Scubapasbrig said...
Either way, both teams are at fault but, the dodgers should have waited til today to retaliate, not in a 17-4 drudging
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8-05-2009 @ 12:31PM
tonytiger18 said...
Hey Matt Snyder, in a past post you stated that you weren't from Boston!!! Is that right?
You came out with some ridiculous analogy and stats defending against my statement that Big Poopie was definitely juioing a few weeks ago. Do you recall?
You are awfully quite and absent from the revelations about your boy, Big Poopie.
Now that Arroyo also "CAME OUT" of his closet and admitted that he took "STUFF" but didn't know what was in it and two Red Sox staffers were fired for possesion of ROIDS by the Sox officials, I would like to know your take on these revelations.Have you been following all the posts, after all you responded and defended Manny in this article?
Are you still with the mindset that all his stats and accomplishments are bonefide?
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8-05-2009 @ 12:59PM
Matt Snyder said...
You couldn't be more inaccurate on your judgment of me.
I'm a Cubs fan and I live in Indianapolis. My wife is a Yankees fan, thus, I've started to take a liking to them in the past few years and much prefer them to the Red Sox. I don't like the Red Sox at all.
I have never defended Manny. I urge you to read back through all my postings on FanHouse. I hate Manny.
As far as Papi, the only thing I can think of is that people were talking about him being "off the juice" this season earlier in the year when he was sucking. My point of contention was that he didn't test positive in his biggest seasons (which were '04 and '05, and he didn't test positive in those years). Thus, if he was taking something then, why would he have stopped at the start of 2009? That was all I was saying. Can you really argue with that logic? Put your fandom aside and just listen to what I was saying. I wasn't even defending him. Most of the reason I would say that is because I'm a fantasy analyst and I KNEW he'd start hitting home runs again. And he did. That was it. There wasn't bias there and I wasn't saying he never took anything. Again, it was "if he took it in those years and didn't test positive, why would he change anything?"
As for Arroyo, I don't care. He sucks anyway.
As far as any absence, I was on vacation from 7/24-8/1. My only posts were fantasy football team previews which I did before leaving.
I'd be happy to make peace, if you just pull back on the throttle a bit and think about your attack in terms of what I said above. We can get along. We mostly agree.
8-05-2009 @ 2:46PM
MEK said...
Matt- No self-respecting Cubs fan could ever root for the Yankees. Your wife has clearly muddled your brain and caused you to go over to the dark side.
8-05-2009 @ 12:33PM
christoheim said...
The error in the first graph of this story is incredibly significant. The verb "bean" is exclusively reserved for a pitch hitting the batter in the head, which happens to be the one unwritten rule that's allowed the retaliation aspect of baseball to survive over so many generations.
Whether you like it or not, if Chris Smith hits Manny Ramirez with a pitch, it's part of the game. If he beans him, it's immediately villifying, as Smith would have committed a cardinal sin - coming in high and tight.
The moral of this story - know your terminology, please.
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8-05-2009 @ 1:14PM
chilly16 said...
if prince dropped a few pounds maybe he wouldn't fill up the batters box and be such an easy target.
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8-05-2009 @ 1:18PM
jzz3skys said...
I didn't see the game but I doubt that it hit him in the hand based on this still photo showing him about to get plunked and it doesn't look like his hand is even in the line of fire:
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/05082009/5/photo/05082009055418.html
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8-05-2009 @ 6:24PM
D said...
No point of reference so since you didn't see the game you have no idea if this pitch hit him or not.
8-05-2009 @ 6:00PM
BUTTHEAD said...
There is no doubt in my mind that if Prince went into the Dodger clubhouse he wouldn't have made it past the front door. It was common knowledge that Junior Seau was the Dodger batboy for the day as part of a reality TV show and Junior stated before the game on a TV interview that he was there to cover the dodger pitchers backs. Also, unless they were going to Sumo wrestle, I am sure Mota who is one big old dude himself and a foot taller that the Fat Prince of Florida could kick his buttocks a good one. Lil Prince has enough problems, he still can't get over his Dad charging him $200,000 to negotiate a 2.5 million signing bonus. Just think kid, your one of the few spoiled rich kids that actually gave his dad back any money for giving him a life of luxuary. You should be proud it is so noted rather than pissedoff.
BTW Cecil smokes some great cigars, he gave me one at a charity softball game for taking a pitcher of him and a ol high school friend and getting them each a copy.
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8-05-2009 @ 8:18PM
Lakergregg said...
I can't believe what I'm reading.
Whatever happened to you hit our best guy we'll hit yours?
Whatever happened to as long as its not in the head?
The Brewers pitcher deliberately hit Manny and the game was out of reach by then, so the Dodgers had every right to do the same by the unwritten rules of the game.
As for the two Mota Piazza encounters written about that happened in 2002 and 2003, anybody else think Piazza might've been a little enRAGEd?
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