Shots In The Dark
Tuesday, March 18, 2024
  Should Baseball Players Retaliate?
If someone makes a dirty play on a baseball field, should a member of the opposing team retaliate?

Murray Chass thinks the answer is yes, and so do I.

The three-game suspension of Shelley Duncan, a Yankees first baseman, for his spikes-high slide into second base in an exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Rays prompted me to think about the change that has occurred in baseball.

Virtually forever, until relatively recently, if a player performed some dastardly deed in a game, the players on the opposing team dealt with him themselves by retaliating in some fashion.

This retaliation was generally comparable in pain inflicted to the original act—even playing dirty has its rules—and everyone understood that such measures were clearly tit-for-tat. As Tommy Lasorda puts it, "It’s evened up. He got our guy; we got their guy.”

But now, the league presidents are cracking down. Suspending someone for three games for a high slide? That is pathetic. What are you supposed to do when someone takes out your catcher in a spring training game? Give him a dirty look?

The reason, of course, is money. It's expensive to pay the salary of an injured player who's making millions....
 
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Name: Richard Bradley
Location: New York, New York
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