Thursday, May 23, 2013
At Home Plate
Hitters mocking pitchers on Sunday good, bad
Written by Daniel Paulling (Contact & Archive) on May 11, 2009
  

Baseball Tonight dedicated part of its Yankees-Orioles highlight on Sunday to Joba Chamberlain and Aubrey Huff. Last season, Chamberlain did one of his vaunted fist pumps after striking out Huff. Sunday, Huff fist pumped twice after homering off Chamberlain.

If pitchers are going to celebrate and show up hitters, why can't hitters celebrate and show up pitchers? It's sad to say, but that was good entertainment.

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle has a different tale about a hitter mocking a pitcher's celebration.

Los Angeles -- Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake has as reputation as a nice guy, but after he apparently insulted Brian Wilson with a gesture Sunday, the Giants' opinion of Blake sank dramatically.

One by one, the Giants visited Wilson in the clubhouse after their 7-5, 13-inning victory to console him after a friend sent to Wilson's cell phone an image of Blake mocking the cross-armed gesture the closer makes after each save.

Wilson's gesture partly relates to his religious faith and partly to his late father. Wilson seemed very distraught about the incident. As Tim Lincecum was about to address reporters, a team employee interrupted and pulled Lincecum away, presumably to talk to Wilson.

Wilson wasn't eager to discuss the incident. Asked if he might talk to Blake the next time they meet, Wilson stood silent. Jeremy Affeldt, standing in the next locker said, "Blake knows what he did."

Blake, who homered against Wilson in the 12th inning to deal the Giant his second blown save, was gone when two San Francisco reporters sought his response.

Wilson pitched a perfect 13th to preserve the win.

In this situation, Blake has got to feel bad about himself. It's difficult to justify mocking someone's way of honoring a deceased father and his faith. That's why I think Blake didn't know the ramifications of what he did.

The story says that Blake has earned the reputation of being a nice guy. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. No one's knowingly going to mock something a player holds so close to his heart.



Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Reddit! Del.icio.us! Mixx! Free and Open Source Software News Google! Live! Facebook! StumbleUpon! TwitThis Joomla Free PHP
 

At Home Plate Podcast

To listen to or download the latest At Home Plate Podcast, please click here.
To subscribe, click the icon below
Podcast Feed

Donations

If you like At Home Plate, you could show your appreciation by donating a small amount to our team. Thank you very much!

Amount: