Comments on: Shocker: “90 percent” of the batters Pedro Martinez hit were hit on purpose

By: yankeehawk

yankeehawk — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:16:01 +0000

sure Pedro….say that now….u didn’t have the balls to say that when u were playing……nothing but a p***y..

By: tuberippin

tuberippin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:13:28 +0000

and yet, it’s a part of the game that has been around since the baseballs were mushy and malleable and games were called on account of darkness.

By: tuberippin

tuberippin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:12:00 +0000

Karim Garcia is too portly; Pedro would use Garcia’s momentum against him in the same way he did with Don Zimmer.

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:32:51 +0000

I think you’re a funny guy, just not a fan of that stuff. I thought the way Bryce Harper reacted last year was THE way to react. Steal 2 bases and tag up on a shallow fly to score a completely manufactured run. Or it was something amazing like that.

Plus you may not understand this, but the only way to let the pitcher know for sure that you’re tougher is to get up slowly, dust yourself off, and take your base. Don’t even look at him. Anything else – and he knows that he owns the inside of the plate on you forever. He knows he got to you.

When you keep your control and go to first, you’re letting him know that he ain’t sh!t, your grandma throws harder than that, and that if he was trying to accomplish something he failed.

By: louhudson23

louhudson23 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:44:10 +0000

If you read Gibson,Drysdale and others ,they threw inside when they felt hitters were cheating in on the plate and laying on the fastball. Or listen to Aaron, Mays or Robinson(Jackie and Frank) speak about receiving one up and in. It was a battle of wills and territory.In today’s game ,many hitters literally have body parts over the plate and they repeatedly lunge across the plate after pitches. Much of this was the direct result of the rectangular strike zone made part of the game in the 80′s and 90′s,where the high strike disappeared and pitches four inches outside became strikes. So many(former) college players learning to hit with an aluminum 8″ sweet spot made hitters more confident to stand in as well.Things have gradually swung back to reality, as the high strike has returned and the width of the plate is the strike zone again,for the most part. Busting a pitch inside to a hitter crowding the plate is the birthright of any pitcher.Chin music is reserved for those who fail to get the message. Pedro understood it and made sure hitters did too. Many of the greatest players of all time managed to cope with conceding the outside part of the plate and daring a pitcher to come inside on him. Most refused to do so,for good reason.

By: josemartez

josemartez — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:11:22 +0000

I remember when he was with Montreal he was in the late innings of an up-to-that-point perfect game against the Reds and he hit Billy Hatcher (who then charged the mound which I thought was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen in a baseball game). I’m assuming he was one of the 14 or 15 he didn’t mean to hit.

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:06:47 +0000

I thought I was particularly clever at that moment. And by crowning achievement, I mean, I wasn’t particularly good. Since this is a game, having another human being throw fastballs at you deliberately (as in the catcher grabs you a split second after you’ve been struck) should present a learning experience. I could have taken the significant bruise and been afraid of this guy throwing at me for the whole game and the next time we meet but I taught him that battery plays both ways and neither are a part of the game. I’m not a particularly violent person and wouldn’t respond to most things with violence but to mar a game by having the possibility of serious injury occur from “sending a message”. I took it that was completely unacceptable as I posed major hitting threat but I stole a base after my first at bat. Charging that guy may have been many things but it definitely wasn’t stupid.

By: js20011041

js20011041 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:14:32 +0000

LSD is a hell of a drug.

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:54:58 +0000

That was a “sarcasm” tag. Sigh.

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:54:24 +0000

Things I just learned: without spaces doesn’t show up here.

By: 18thstreet

18thstreet — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:53:35 +0000

Scrolling down this list, I don’t see any reason to believe that pitchers are hitting batters less than they used to:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/HBP_p_leagues.shtml

Like everyone else in this country, SomeKat is an idiot.

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:10:45 +0000

That is a horrible story, and it was a stupid thing to do. The problem is the ending – someone who had grown as a person would admit that it was the senseless act of a loser.

I’m not saying that I haven’t done stupid things. I responded to this post, for instance. It’s just that I look back on them and think “boy was that (stupid, lame dangerous, whatever)” — not “Ha ha I did something amazing.”

By: bigharold

bigharold — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:14:14 +0000

“… they deserve a beaner.”

If there was any validity to that then Manny and Ortiz should be dead.

I get it, .. throwing inside is part of the game but deliberately hitting people, .. in the head is BS.

By: mashoaf

mashoaf — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 06:42:28 +0000

Pedro was on the Expos… So ya, I suppose it didn’t stop him…

By: petey1999

petey1999 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:59:32 +0000

Fast feet.

By: petey1999

petey1999 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:56:31 +0000

Ask Bob Gibson.

By: anarchopurplism

anarchopurplism — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 05:09:03 +0000

Would it be acceptable to chuck your bat @ the pitcher in response to HBP?

@chacochicken…….great story

By: raysfan1

raysfan1 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:47:49 +0000

Remember…mostly dead is slightly alive.
http://screen.yahoo.com/the-princess-bride-clip-mostly-dead-30718797.html

By: daisycutter1

daisycutter1 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 03:16:11 +0000

That would seem to make sense, but David Ortiz hardly ever gets HBP.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:18:37 +0000

So, mostly dead.

By: mj1818

mj1818 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:05:16 +0000

It is a part of the game, agreed. Sometimes when guys cry an run their mouth or show boat like A-rod, they deserve a beaner.

By: hammyofdoom

hammyofdoom — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:04:13 +0000

Actually the numbers arent that different. In like 7-8 seasons in the NL he had around 64 and in 7 seasons in the AL he had 77. Yeah there were more in the AL but not that much

By: hammyofdoom

hammyofdoom — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:00:08 +0000

Yes, because when I think of hall of fame athletes I tend to think of their last year when they were at the tail end of their career and, shockingly, they got beat. Or that one game where their coach left them in too long while they were in the middle of an otherwise dominating season. Yep, that’s what I like to do

By: approvenothing

approvenothing — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:57:58 +0000

Trolololol?

By: stercuilus65

stercuilus65 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 01:11:16 +0000

I wonder how many were in the AL when he didn’t have to bat?

By: chacochicken

chacochicken — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:51:54 +0000

Oh, come on. You get hit and take the base. Then you charge that bastard from his blind side. I did this in high school. The catcher grabbed the back of my belt as soon as the pitch hit me. I was blurry with anger but realized I couldn’t get to him and he was staring at me so I shook it off and took my base. Got a little lead off and broke into a sprint to the mound. I ran through him like a wet cardboard box. My arm was numb for like 4 hours after the hit and he had the wind knocked out of him for like 5 minutes. Maybe the crowning achievement of my junior season.

By: dirtyharry1971

dirtyharry1971 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:41:25 +0000

whenever i think pedro i will always think about the “03 ALCS and even more so the 2009 WS where he got totally OWNED and made sure the phils got buried. That image will forever burn in my mind, it was so beautiful watching him embaress himself on the big stage

By: tfbuckfutter

tfbuckfutter — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:32:52 +0000

Interestingly 100% of the people he has beaten up were already 90% dead at the time.

By: sabatimus

sabatimus — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:28:12 +0000

And anyone who thinks that other Hall of Famer pitchers didn’t throw at people on purpose is lying to themselves.

By: opshuns

opshuns — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:26:39 +0000

Buzzing a batter is cool, but hitting a batter is BS which of it seems Pefro is…