BaseBrawling in San Diego
Last night, in San Diego, the Padres hosted division rival, Los Angeles Dodgers. In the sixth inning, on a 3-2 count, to Padres slugger, Carlos Quentin, Dodgers pitcher, Zack Greinke lost control of a pitch and plunked Quentin in the left arm. The two players have had a history going back to their days in the American League Central Division, along with Quentin’s notoriety for getting hit by pitches frequently. Greinke shot some unknown words at Quentin after the pitch resulting in Quentin’s charging the mound and slamming into Greinke with his shoulder. The act resulted in a bench-clearing brawl and multiple ejections from both teams. When the dust was settled though, there was a bigger problem, Greinke suffered a broken collar bone on the initial hit from Quentin, and most likely will be out at least 2 months waiting for it to heal.
Dodgers coach, Don Mattingly brought up an idea after the game, an idea I found very interesting but one that could never happen. He suggested that Quentin should be suspended until Greinke is healed and able to pitch again, though the league will probably give Quentin somewhere in the range of a 2-4 game suspension.
But just imagine if that’s the way things went. If there was an intentional hit on a player resulting in an injury, the suspension wouldn’t be dealt out by the league, but instead the amount of time the injured player takes to come back. The extreme though could be a little too extreme. Think if someone intentionally hit Derrick Rose, causing his season-ending ACL tear. That player would still be out because Rose is taking so long to get himself prepared to return. Maybe leagues should look into this, and the severity of the injury dished out, results in how many games the aggressor would miss. Maybe the ACL tear isn’t a good example, because of the usual self-injuring it comes from.
Let’s look at the NFL quickly. Remember all of the hits that Austin Collie took the last few years, causing him to miss an entire season. What if every one of the defenders who lowered the crown of their helmet and hit Collie head on received half-season suspensions instead of fines in response to Collie missing an entire year. Could this be something leagues look into for the future? Maybe this could be the way that leagues, especially the MLB and NFL, can cut back on these occurrences in their respective sports.
Just something to think about.
