Russ Springer Is An Ass

Tuesday night, Giants at Astros. The Giants are kicking the crap out of the 'stros, having put up two five-spots within the first four innings. In the fifth, Barry Bonds comes up against Russ Springer. Either Springer decided to aim his pitches directly at Bonds, or he has a vision disorder which makes him see home plate as being a foot to the left of where he should see it. Here's the pitch sequence:

Pitch #1: Slider, behind Bonds. Home plate ump County Joe West warns the Astros.

Pitch#2: Slider, right at Bonds' knees. He dodges it.

Pitch#3: Fastball, up and in. Bonds ducks back and the ball hits the knob of his bat, for a foul ball.

Pitch#4: Fastball, right at the chin. Bonds pulls back again.

Pitch#5: Fastball, right between the shoulder blades.

Springer and Astros manager Phil Garner were immediately and rightly ejected. There is a good compound word for this kind of thing. The first part is "chicken" and the second part rhymes with "spit."

Yes, I fully agree that pitchers have the right to pitch to the inside part of the plate. That has nothing to do with this. It should have been clear to anyone watching it that Springer was trying to hit Bonds, with as hard a pitch as he could. The fact that the last three pitches were up near the head only makes it worse.

I suppose we'll hear from the "Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson would have done it" crowd. Drysdale and Gibson pitched 40 years ago. I like to think that we are a little less tolerant of "assault with a deadly weapon" these days. Or maybe not. Ty Cobb used to sharpen his spikes and use them on infielders. Because he did that in 1909, do we want to allow it today?

Springer (and Garner) should be facing suspensions. Batters, be they Bonds or anyone else, are not targets.