Sox P tries to hit Ranger, and can't..

[brinkeguthrie]

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers put a dent in Javier Vazquez's ERA Wednesday night.

But that paled in comparison to the anger the White Sox displayed during an 8-0 loss at Ameriquest Field in the latest chapter of their rivalry with the Rangers.

Texas starter Vicente Padilla hit Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski twice, which prompted a warning to both sides from home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi in the fourth inning.

Suspicions of retaliation surfaced in the seventh when Sox rookie reliever Sean Tracey moved Texas cleanup hitter Hank Blalock off the plate with a high-and-tight first pitch.

Blalock took a big hack and missed at the next pitch before Tracey moved Blalock off the plate with a low, inside pitch.

The sequence ended when Blalock grounded out to second, but manager Ozzie Guillen immediately pulled Tracey in favor of fellow rookie Agustin Montero, who had been warming up as Tracey entered the game.

Television cameras caught Guillen yelling at Tracey in the dugout.

Tracey buried his head in his hands before covering his face with his jersey, and Guillen was shown spiking a bottle of water.

Guillen declined to elaborate on the incident after taking the blame for not having Montero ready to start the inning, adding Tracey "is one of our prospects." Guillen said he didn't want to make comments that could result in a suspension.

Tracey, who packed his bag after the game in an apparent demotion to Triple-A Charlotte, declined to comment.

[NJTank]

Torre got suspended 1 game for the Johnson incident I say Guillen should get atleast 5 games becuase it was a blatent he was ordering a hit.

[SouthSidePride]

When did baseball become a sissy mans game? A suspension for a bean ball? That's out of control. HBP have always been part of the game, and the armour and the warnings have removed a major part of the game that I love.

There is a story about a pro ball player who comes up to the major leagues and meets Frank Robinson (who, most of you know, is the greatest living baseball man, in my opinion.) Robinson is very warm to this future all star, and asks him two questions. One: Can you catch up to major league heat. The kid says yes, and he can make adjustments at the plate as well. Robinson shakes him off and asks him his second question: Can you get out of the way of major league heat when it is comming at your head?

If you look at the catchers signs while batting, you will get a heater to the head. If you make a dirty play at the plate. You will get a heater to the head. If you are a pitcher and you hit a guy twice. You will be hit once, hard, for your troubles.

This whole thing is bull and I wish the men could just play baseball.

[Brendan]

what no link this time brinkeguthrie

[The_Admiral]

When did baseball become a sissy mans game? A suspension for a bean ball? That's out of control. HBP have always been part of the game, and the armour and the warnings have removed a major part of the game that I love.

If you look at the catchers signs while batting, you will get a heater to the head. If you make a dirty play at the plate. You will get a heater to the head. If you are a pitcher and you hit a guy twice. You will be hit once, hard, for your troubles.

This whole thing is bull and I wish the men could just play baseball.

Okay, look, SouthSidePride, I hate sissy approaches to sports as much as anyone, but sending in a rookie pitcher strictly to hurl a projectile at Hank Blalock's head, who has nothing to do with this whole thing beyond a common uniform, and then to embarrass said rookie pitcher on TV for failing to hit an innocent man's head with a baseball, and furthermore, demote said pitcher, is pretty classless. That's not "just playing baseball."

[TurnTwo]

When did baseball become a sissy mans game? A suspension for a bean ball? That's out of control. HBP have always been part of the game, and the armour and the warnings have removed a major part of the game that I love.

If you look at the catchers signs while batting, you will get a heater to the head. If you make a dirty play at the plate. You will get a heater to the head. If you are a pitcher and you hit a guy twice. You will be hit once, hard, for your troubles.

This whole thing is bull and I wish the men could just play baseball.

Okay, look, SouthSidePride, I hate sissy approaches to sports as much as anyone, but sending in a rookie pitcher strictly to hurl a projectile at Hank Blalock's head, who has nothing to do with this whole thing beyond a common uniform, and then to embarrass said rookie pitcher on TV for failing to hit an innocent man's head with a baseball, and furthermore, demote said pitcher, is pretty classless. That's not "just playing baseball."

I 100% agree. This is a rookie pitcher, he has enough pressure on him as it is. You can't put him in that situation.

[NJTank]

When you hit somebody you need deniabillity Guillen actig the way he did threw that out the window.

[brinkeguthrie]

what no link this time brinkeguthrie

<sigh>

[Sodboy13]

This is one of those retarded "unwritten rules of baseball" that embittered former players and clueless hack sportswriters chirp endlessly about. "A beanball for a beanball" is every bit as dumb as chastising a player for bunting to break up a no-hitter. Guillen is a fiery manager, and his exuberant personality has rallied and united this team. Unfortunately, this display against the Rangers showed the other side of the coin when it comes to Guillen's tempermental nature. Hey, Ozzie: your rookie pitcher got an All-Star slugger out instead of putting him on base. And for that, you pull him out of the game, scream bloody murder at him, and send him back down to the minors? Unwritten rules be damned - that's not how you successfully manage the game of baseball.

[The_Admiral]

Thank you for a rational and intelligent response.

[MrAsterisk]

This is one of those retarded "unwritten rules of baseball" that embittered former players and clueless hack sportswriters chirp endlessly about.  "A beanball for a beanball" is every bit as dumb as chastising a player for bunting to break up a no-hitter.  Guillen is a fiery manager, and his exuberant personality has rallied and united this team.  Unfortunately, this display against the Rangers showed the other side of the coin when it comes to Guillen's tempermental nature.  Hey, Ozzie: your rookie pitcher got an All-Star slugger out instead of putting him on base.  And for that, you pull him out of the game, scream bloody murder at him, and send him back down to the minors?  Unwritten rules be damned - that's not how you successfully manage the game of baseball.

Absolutely.

The unprofessionalism shown by the White Sox TV announcers Ken "Hawk" Harrellson and Darrin Jackson made me embarassed to be a Sox fan. Game events were secondary to their immature ranting for the fourth and fifth innings, as they cried for retalliation. "I'd wait for him by the clubhouse after the game" was one shamefully memorable quote. Harrellson also bemoaned the warnings issued by the homeplate ump (repetitively and at length), saying the action was more to protect the umpire's behind than the players. In the remaining five innings of the game they managed to insult all of the Rangers, a handful of the White Sox, and the home plate official who was simply doing his job.

An out is always better than a hit batsmen, indeed. The best hitters (Ichiro, for example) trot happily to first base knowing that it took three fewer pitches than normal for them to outsmart the pitcher.

[The_Admiral]

Hawk Harrelson and DJ are the worst. Watching a White Sox game that they're calling makes me think of two mullet-wearing schmucks from Calumet Park drinking Pabst and watching TV in their underwear, yet they have Southern accents. It's all so very strange.

[SouthSidePride]

What outside fans would not know is that Tracey was not just in the game to hit the batter. He has been getting quality innings, but has not performed. When Ozzie goes out there and gives him his first task, hitting Blalok, he should be able to do it. When you can't even hit a guy, how can the manager expect you to hit the strike zone?

BTW, the unwritten rules of baseball have made baseball what it is.

And I am a sportswritter, so, strong call on that one, Sodboy.

[The_Admiral]

When Ozzie goes out there and gives him his first task, hitting Blalok, he should be able to do it. When you can't even hit a guy, how can the manager expect you to hit the strike zone?

BTW, the unwritten rules of baseball have made baseball what it is.

If you can't injure a man, what CAN you do? Geez. It's one thing to brush someone back for crowding the plate, or to hit the pitcher himself for repeatedly beaning your teammates, but why did he have to hit Blalock? That's not an "unwritten rule of baseball," that's just more ill-conceived spiteful behavior from Guillen, indicative of the low-rent trashy culture the White Sox cultivate and embrace.

Screw the unwritten rules, they're mostly garbage. Your leadoff hitter needs to be fast. It's better to put the ball in play than to strike out looking. It's more important to hurt a man and put him on than record an out because his teammate drilled your teammate. These are all ridiculous.

[MrAsterisk]

When you can't even hit a guy, how can the manager expect you to hit the strike zone?

Probably because he's trained his whole life to never hit the batter and always hit the strike zone. Those filthy habits...

[CZzyzx41]

Any pitcher sends a heater headward, he better hit me and he better get me good or his catcher is going to have quite a headache when he wakes up in the hospital

[brinkeguthrie]

Ozzie is looking at suspension-city. when you come out IN BOLD HEADLINES AND SAY I WANTED THAT GUY HIT rather than just get it done the usual way, he's in trouble.

[Sodboy13]

BTW, the unwritten rules of baseball have made baseball what it is.

Didn't segregation used to be an unwritten rule of baseball?

Call it a "Gentlemen's Agreement," call it what you want, I call crap crap when I see it. Ozzie's decision was a childish one, and holds the potential to seriously mess with a pitching prospect's head.

As for Hawk and DJ - I love the White Sox, I watch lots of games, and I have successfully managed for the last few years to not hear a word that comes out of the mouths of these two strokes. Either I turn up the radio, or I distract myself to the point where I no longer notice anything they're saying. The "back when I played" stories never end, every phrase used by Harrelson lost its novelty around 1997, and from the sound of it, you'd think the Hawk had written the unwritten rule book himself with his invisible-ink fountain pen. The great home run call doesn't balance out 9 innings of broadcast agony. The only salvation comes from DJ's solo moments in the booth, during Hawk's inning-long Scotch breaks.

Oh, and TCR, the shirtless mullet crowd has migrated a bit northwest to Alsip and Worth. Believe me, I lived there for a year. But you can still get chilled sixers of Schlitz at the Ultra Foods in Cal Park. Score.

[Fred T. Jane]

BTW, the unwritten rules of baseball have made baseball what it is.

A poorly marketed sport with a financial structure on par wth an African kleptocracy, and rosters full of alleged steroid, HGH, and Amphetamine junkies?

[paynomind]

I love seeing folks bemoaning soccer for being boring and non-contact, but when the ONE physical contact in the boring ass game of baseball comes up, they get all pussified and cry. Hitting a player is part of the game. Yes it is.

No, really, it is.

Want me to prove it? OK, look at the rule book, 6.08 details over 5 paragraphs how and when a player may take first base when hit by a pitch. It is in the rule book, thereby part of the game. Hitting a batter intentionally is simply a strategy, such as a punter running out the back of the end zone, rather than punting. It is the same intimidation factor as a defensement delivering a big check to a foward early in a hockey game. Its strategy, part of the game, and within the rules.

Now, lets get to the actual incident we are discussing, since the merits of hitting a batter intentionally weren't the topic here.

A player did not do what his coach told him to do.

Let me say that again for you soft-skulled idiots out there...

A player did not do what his coach told him to do.

Period. I don't care if the coach tells you to take a piss on the mound. Either do what the coach says or quit the team. Don't go out and freelance on your own.

It is completely 100% undebateable that if you dont do what your coach tells you to do, you will be repremanded and possibly sent away.

A player did not do what his coach told him to do. Thats the crux of the whole thing. If you dont want to be yelled at like a 5-year old in the dugout, then do what you were told. As they said in the Water Boy, "What are ya, too stu-stu-stupid to do what the coach tells ya?"