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Showing posts with the label game changer

Retaliation in Baseball

An odd situation occurred a while back in the Chicago White Sox clubhouse. Chicago's catcher, A.J. Pierzynski, was hit twice in a game against Texas, so when the Rangers' Hank Blalock came to bat in the 7th, Chicago head coach Ozzie Guillen brought a pitcher in to retaliate and bean Blalock. Rookie Sean Tracey was Guillen's pick for the job. Tracey threw two pitches inside and then got Blalock to ground out. Usually, players and managers would be content with an out, especially against a hitter the caliber of Blalock, right? Wrong. Guillen was furious and lost it in the dugout. What happened after that? Tracey got demoted to Triple-A. Because of the incident? That's hard to say, but some are suggesting that it is due to this incident. Some like to say that the beanball retaliation is just a part of the game. But why? What's the big deal? Why give the opposing team a free runner on base? Especially if the game is close? That never made sense to me. If it's ...