Why Are Grown Men Still Throwing Baseballs At One Another?

Being the huge sports fan that I am, there is not a day that goes by that I don't catch an episode or two of Sportscenter on ESPN before bed. There was a story yesterday that caught my attention, and yanked my chain a little. It involved an "unwritten rule" in Major League Baseball that basically says it is acceptable to hit one another with baseballs. It is not OK, and it needs to stop!

The story in a nutshell goes something like this... The New York Mets were playing the Milwaukee Brewers Monday night. The Mets were losing big and the Brewers had just hit a home run off of Mets pitcher D.J. Carrasco. Next up was the Brewers best player and last years National League MVP, Ryan Braun. First pitch, Braun gets hit by a pitch from Carrasco. Carrasco is in turn ejected from the game. The next half inning, Mets manager Terry Collins takes his best player, David Wright, out of the game to protect him from getting hit in retaliation. Collins said the Brewers had every right to retaliate, and figured they would go after his star, Wright, who was due to lead off the next half-inning. "I'm not accusing anybody of the possibility of retaliation. But I don't blame the umpires for doing what they did. I don't blame the other team for any perception they had of what happened. But I've got news for you: In this game, there are unwritten rules. And one of the unwritten rules is you hit my guy, I'm hitting your guy."

So, you are suspending players and coaches in the NFL for entire seasons for bounties in a sport that is supposed to be violent, but in the rather peaceful game of baseball there are these "unwritten rules" that are accepted?

Think about how vulnerable a hitter is. You have pitchers that can throw a ball that is as hard as a rock 100 miles per hour. What defense does the hitter have? A bat that does no good when the ball is coming at your body, and a helmet that protects your head if it stays on, but not your face or any other bone that could break due to a ball hitting it.

Sure, guys get thrown out of games for throwing at hitters, but that is it. Like the Mets coach said, it's expected, if I throw at your guy, you have every right to throw at mine. Are we in elementary school? No, we are talking grown men playing professional baseball here. Guys have and will continue to get hurt if this idiocy continues. Suspensions, and long ones need to be enforced. Yes, people will get hit on accident that's part of baseball, but the blatant plunkings are not part of baseball. Let's teach the millions of youth who watch and look up to these guys how to play the game correctly and break the history of these childish "unwritten rules."