Irony
By Karlsie
Is it me, or was ironic that President Bush threw out the first pitch to herald "the proud return of baseball to the Washington area" at the first Nationals home game and yet he was part owner of the Texas Rangers - the team that left Washington without a team for over 30 years? I don't know. But isn't that almost as tacky as asking Torrez and Dent to reenact the 1978 home run when the Yankees opened their new spring training facility a few years back?
Speaking of tacky and Bucky Dent...
Chris House, a long-time season ticket holder, and Sheffield had a weird moment when House's arm swept across Sheffield's cheek. The announcers immediately declared House to be the culprit in "taking a swing" at Sheffield and complimented Sheffield on his restraint. They took House to task and he was tried, condemned and sentenced without so much as a 'boo' from those around him.
I take that back - there were a bunch of "boos" from those around him — mostly for Sheffield. By the way, with the exception of one person, most of those around him said it didn't look intentional from their angle.
Let me tell you what my son and I saw.
We saw a bunch of people diving over the wall for the ball and one guy's arm sweep around and chuck his friend on the chin as he grabbed him in a hug. We saw Sheffield go for the guy, field the ball, and then go back at him. It didn't look like a punch thrown or a swing taken - it looked like a guy going for a ball, realizing in a split second he wasn't going to get it, pulling up to hug his friend in excitement over the play.
But. maybe I'm too much of a Sox fan to call that one fairly - so when my husband got home, I played it for him with the mute on and asked his opinion of what happened. Now - keep in mind that I have a mixed marriage. My husband is a New Yorker (but I love him anyway and have forgiven him for that one character flaw). He has no problem tweaking me about when the Sox lose to the Yankees. In fact, as I jumped up and down celebrating the Series win last year, his response was, "We'll give you one. maybe two if it means a Sox-Cubbies series."
He said it looked like a fan trying to get out of the way - something he repeated this morning after watching it with the commentary. We also watched it frame by frame (oh how I love digital cable - if only I had the HDTV to go with it) to see if there was any thing we missed. Scrutinizing the play that way we noticed little things - the fans' faces in the area, the look of shock on House and his companions' faces at Sheffield's reaction and so on - initially with the sound off. In the end, we jointly decided that this was an unintentional thing that could have gone very badly if not for the fast actions of Sox security; especially in yet
another game where the calls were going against the Sox and things had a high probability of getting truly ugly.
The cries of "foul" from Yankees fans also strike me as somewhat ironic considering the deification of a (then) 12-year-old Jeff Maier - who interfered with game one of the ALCS series against the O's in '96. His interference when he gloved Derek Cheater's fly ball (which would not have been a home run the ump gave Cheater - had the interference not happened) cost the O's the game. This is a kid who wasn't in the ticker tape parade for the Yanks because his parents sent him to school that day.
More recently we had that nasty little brush-up in the bullpen between Paul Williams and the tag-team duo of Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia because Nelson was somehow puzzled and upset that a part-time Fenway employee would be - surprise, surprise - rooting for the home town team. Two professional athletes, according to the police report, used "hands, feet and teeth" to protect themselves from a special ed teacher waving a towel with the fans.
Since I was speaking of tacky AND Buck Dent, let us not forget who the Yankees management asked to throw out the opening pitch in game 7 last year. While there were many who may have found that stunt amusing, let's call it what it was: a classless act designed to gain a psychological edge. A salting of the band aid if you will.
All of it harkens back to one of the best piece of ethics writing. A. Bartlett Giamatti (of blessed memory and the last great baseball commissioner) in 1987, when he wrote "The Decision in the Appeal of Kevin Gross," discussed two types of bad conduct: organic and pre-meditated. Gross fell into the pre-meditated category of going out, acquiring the sandpaper, cutting it to size and then attaching it to the glove. As a result, his punishment needed to be more severe than the precedents his lawyer cited which involved "organic" behavior. Giamatti discusses how two teams in a competitive situation — such as a baseball game — can cloud better judgment and impair wisdom. So when someone bumps an umpire in such a situation, it is an organic act that is understandable even if it
is still unacceptable behavior. This is why we have legal distinctions such as manslaughter vs. first degree murder.
With Greg Gibson's erratic calls (was he high on Nyquill or something last night?), and a distrust of all things Yankees in Boston, I'm surprised it didn't get uglier. That isn't to excuse bad behavior - but fans will always reach out to grab a ball in spite of warnings not to interfere and when you play that close to the wall on any field— well, let's just say I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier. John Welch and his crew need to be complimented for their head's-up action.
In the end, Sheffield was restrained in not charging the stands. I don't care what held him back, he did hold himself back. Sox fans held themselves back and so did both teams in a moment that could have easily have exploded.
No doubt it will be debated for years but in the end, we win. Looks like we found the Yankees lost shaker of salt.
Band aid any one?
Photo Source: Isaacson/Getty Images - from www.RedSox.com
Editor's Note: Here's an actual eyewitness account of the "Sheffield Incident"
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/baseball/mlb/oakland_athletics/11400524.htm
