Opinion
Let me start by saying this. Baseball is cool, and the 2023 MLB campaign has been fun to watch. From Shohei Ohtani doing things that make him wonder if he’s human as both a pitcher and a designated hitter, to players showing as much personality as possible now.
But there still are some things the sport has to move past, one of them being the idea that throwing a pitch at someone does anything beyond show how unwritten rules and “traditions” are still holding this sport back in certain areas.
On Thursday night during the Chicago Cubs-St Louis Cardinals game, in the first inning, the Cubs’ Ian Happ on his backswing on a pitch accidentally hit Cardinals catcher and former teammate in the head Wilson Contreras.
This was clearly an accident, it happens every so often and batters are always apologetic about it, taking a bat to the head not only is painful, it can do serious damage to a catcher, we’ve seen catchers concussed and in this case of Contreras he contact resulted in a cut in his scalp and he was forced to leave the game.
Happ was clearly sorry for it and two hugged at the batter’s box before Contreras left the field.
What transpired next I thought was easily one of the most ridiculous things you’ll see this season. Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas proceeded to not once but twice throw at Happ as the at-bat continued, hitting Happ in the right hip with the second pitch and getting himself ejected and in the process, becoming the first Cardinals pitcher in over 80 years to be tossed from a game in the first inning.
I get it, it sucks to see a teammate go down, this is your brother, you care about him, but coming inside with clear intent to hit the batter afterward on a situation that was clearly a case of bad luck does nothing. What have you accomplished?
Did Mikolas really think Happ would try to injure a former teammate friend who he clearly cares about? This was a situation that the umpires got right when it came to an ejection after the second pitch.
How does a beanball help the situation? What if now the Cubs feel they need to get back at the Cardinals to start the game on Friday by hitting a Cardinals batter and this continues to escalate? The energy in hitting Happ should have been placed into getting him out instead.
With the beanball now after losing your catcher, Mikolas also put a man on base. If I’m Happ I’ll take being put on first any day of the week.
The Bally’s Cardinals television broadcast team was no better in the situation with their comments, what are you doing defending hitting a batter and how is any of that “the right way” to handle things? Have a little feel for the game? Have a little feel for Baseball?
C’mon now, hitting an opposing player with a projectile coming towards the batter’s box at over 80 miles per hour shouldn’t be tolerated by any broadcast team no matter what team’s broadcast feed you’re on.
How are we still hanging onto these old traditions of baseball that to an outsider to the sport probably look incredibly stupid? How has this not as a collective been taken out of the sport to move it forward?
Beaning a batter here is just as dumb as getting mad at players who want to celebrate home runs excessively or players who wear their jerseys a little differently than others (remember the comments back in the day when Ken Griffey Jr wore his cap backwards?).
We need to move past all this for the betterment of the sport, please. Leave the so-called right way back in the 1950s.
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