05 May, 2008

On Charging the Mound

For the most part, baseball is a passive aggressive sport. You focus all of your aggression and take it out on the baseball. What happens when the player is hit by the ball is something completely different though. It can be both comical and/or violent, depending on how the batter decides to react.

Every pitcher can only hope they are as lucky as this Japanese pitcher, when he beans Tony Batista. Sorry for the Japanese commentary, unless you speak Japanese in which case you're welcome.



Sometimes, it's not the pitcher that should be worried. If the batter happens to be Izzy Alcantara, maybe the catcher should be ready to defend himself.



Finally, when you think of the worst thing that can happen after you bean someone with a baseball, it would be this act by Jose Offerman. Offerman really uses all of his .373 career batting average on this one.



Just a word for the wise, be sure you know what you are getting into when you decide to charge that mound. Because, as Robin Ventura found out when he charged Hall-of-Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan in 1993, sometimes that pitcher just might be able to beat the crap out of you; even if he is in the final year of a 27 year MLB career.

1 comment:

Matt Donato said...

Great video collection. Izzy will always be my favorite. He reinvented the mound charge, thought strategically, and made sure the catcher could not hold him back before taking on the entire opposing team. To throw away your entire career for one moment, he could not have chosen a more memorable one.