(FanDuel Insider)
“Major League Baseball has to do something about this.”
Toronto All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson addressed the media after he and manager John Gibbons had been ejected during the first inning during the matchup against the Twins.
Following a noticeable glance from Donaldson towards the Twins’ dugout, Minnesota pitcher Phil Hughes threw two balls at Donaldson, none of which were close to the strike zone. Donaldson wasn’t impressed when he showed emotions towards the home plate umpire Mark Ripperger, who ultimately tossed him. Naturally, Gibbons emerged from the dugout in protest and was also ejected.
Following the game, the two had a lot to say in regards to safety at the plate. The “catcher’s rule” is now in place to increase player safety by eliminating “egregious” collisions at home, but Donaldson raised a different point and that was whether or not the batter is safe in a similar situation that he went through.
“They say they’re trying to protect players,” Donaldson said to ESPN following the gameSunday. “They make a rule that says you can’t slide hard into second base. They make a rule to protect the catchers on slides into home. But when you throw a ball at somebody, nothing’s done about it. My manager comes out to ask what’s going on, and he gets ejected for it. That’s what happens.”
What Donaldson said makes sense. The rule we all know was ultimately for the catcher to make sure he was safe. When it comes to the unwritten rules of baseball, what happened to Donaldson isn’t new, but slapping a helmet on someone and an elbow and ankle brace doesn’t exactly qualify as armor.
Ryan Vogelsong just went down Monday with a hit to the face from a 92 mph ball off of Rockies pitcher Jordan Lyles. And this situation had nothing to do with any unwritten rules.
“I just don’t get the point,” Donaldson added. “I don’t get what baseball’s trying to prove. If I’m a young kid watching these games, why would I want to play baseball? Why? If I do something well or if somebody doesn’t like something that I do, it’s, ‘Oh, well, I’m going to throw at you now.'”
Gibbons went on to add that when Hughes threw the ball, he knew it was intentional because of his reputation of throwing strikes time-after-time. He also said he was certain the pitcher would get tossed, but “you never know” when it comes to certain calls of this nature.
Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those scenarios where you were taught in little league that stepping on the chalk when you run out to the field is considered bad luck, but it boils down to the safety of play. Hughes has control over where he throws the ball, he showed that when Donaldson stepped up to the plate, but that’s not always the summary of the story.
The sliding rule recently ended up with Jose Bautista being punched in the face and a stare into the dugout led to two ejections, but could have easily ended up in someone being sent to the hospital.
I’m not going to go into another long argument on whether the unwritten rules of baseball outweigh the black and white rules, because those are overdone. This just proves it could be a scary road for those who think retaliation is something that should be taken lightly.