Gibson said before Sundays game. Everyone but Stevie Wonder could see that Arizona reliever Randall Delgado drilled Pirates centerfielder and reigning NL MVP Andrew McCutchen on purpose. Although he was hit smack dab in the middle of his back, he stayed in the game.
McCutchen had this to say about the incident. “We understand that retaliation is going to happen in this game. But you know, there’s a right way to do it. If you’re going to hit me, hit me. He hit me square in the spine. If I get hurt, what happens then?”
There are also additional components in regards to this incident that may provide even more insight and intrigue as to the direct assault on the Pirates superstar.
Paul Goldschmidt was the runner up to McCutchen for the NL MVP award in 2013 and many people felt that Goldschmidt “was robbed of the MVP award” and now a pitcher from the team of the player who won the MVP award has the audacity to hit and injure their man that finished second. McCutchen is lucky that the Diamondbacks pitcher wasn’t ordered to aim for his neck or any other exposed part of his body. Paul Goldschmidt can recover from a hand injury. Andrew McCutchen may or may not totally recover from a spinal cord or spinal column injury. The hit in McCutchen’s spinal area may not have discernable affects on him at present but may cause him to experience physical difficulties that may manifest long after the hand of Paul Goldschmidt has completely healed. I am sorry to gloat boys’ and girls’ but I predicted that this was going to happen because the commissioner of baseball Bud Selig has no impact as a leader and such incidents can only increase the ratings and television viewership of MLB. Bud Selig does not seem to care about the life and limb of the players, but as the late L.A. Raiders owner Al Davis might say; “just keep the ratings going up baby, the sky is the limit.”
Recently, I wrote a column titled “Target Practice.” In it I said that “MLB clubs seem to be on some sort of assassination mission. If you were standing in the batter’s box, would you be worried more about getting a hit or getting hit? Would you be more pleased with a round tripper or a one way trip to the bone orchard? MLB Commissioner Bud Selig is as usual; asleep at the wheel. We will all hear is voice piping all across the airwaves only when someone gets killed or seriously injured.” Presently, MLB is not even postured or poised to address the situation of throwing at hitters so it must now be up to law enforcement to enforce assault laws if players or teams decide to take that route.
If you or I have a dispute with a neighbor about a parking space and one of us goes into the house and grabs a baseball with the intent of smashing the windshield of the neighbors car but hits the windshield not breaking it but causing the ball to ricochet, striking the neighbor on the side of the head, injuring him or killing him the court is not going to award the neighbor primary access to the space or penalize us from using that parking there for a day. The offender most likely will be tried and convicted in criminal and/or civil court.
MLB can no longer be relied upon or trusted to police itself. Life and limb are far more important than home runs and strikeouts. Baseball is not the Roman Coliseum. Law enforcement must intervene and stop these blatant assaults disguised as sport before the “Grim Reaper” does. (The sources for this story were thefreedictionary.com and AP)
(Aubrey Bruce can be reached at; abruce@newpittsburghcourier.com or 412-583-6741. Follow him on Twitter @ultrascribe.)
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