Based on all published reports, there is no getting around the fact that Carlos Rodriguez's disgusting act of throwing a ball at Alex Pena set off yesterday's ugly brawl at Fraser Field. I will re-iterate what I said yesterday: he should be released today, before the league even gets the chance to suspend him. That is totally intolerable, especially from an owner who prides himself on doing things 'the right way' -- I don't like seeing stories like the one I read from today's Worcester Telegram & Gazzette, in which Worcester's GM rips the Spirit. Sadly, it seems pretty true.
Link:
"All of that is conduct that doesn’t sit right with R.C. Reuteman, the Tornadoes president and general manager.
“I think for the most part we do it right,” Reuteman said, “but there are teams in this league that don’t. “We’re professional baseball players,” he continued. “And if we can’t conduct ourselves professionally, we have no (bleeping) business being part of it. There is absolutely no room for it.”
Reuteman said he is very frustrated with the Can-Am League in general and planned to have a phone conversation with league commissioner Miles Wolff last night. “If this is how our league is going to sit back and let these things happen,” Reuteman explained, “that’s not what I’m all about.”
Pitching coach Bobby Ojeda echoed some of Reuteman’s sentiments: “There’s no place in the game for this type of thing, and the saddest part is when you allow individuals like this (on your team), and you look the other way. And you have to look to the owner because he signed them."”
*
Interestingly enough, the official recap on the Spirit website just says that 'a brawl took place' with no explanation as to how it happened; the CanAm recap ignores the incident entirely.
It's not good when you are getting slammed in the media without any sort of response.
The Item's recap is particularly bad. Not only does it not write why the brawl started, it also states that Worcester starter Alex Pena was tossed --- which is not the case. All the Item had to do in this case was look up ANY OTHER REPORT on the game --- or just ask someone who would know.
It's pretty embarassing how the Spirit media coverage of the game tried to ignore the ugly incident.
I do have one issue with the Worcester T & G coverage, however. Here are a few lines:
"The brawl was clearly initiated by the Spirit. "
"Rodriguez, who is 6-foot-2, 220 pounds, then charged and tackled Pena from behind."
"The brawl appears to be part of a trend for North Shore, which also was involved in a brawl with Quebec in June. Its manager, Vic Davilla, has been thrown out of seven games this season. Rodriguez, the instigator this time around, was released from the team earlier this season. He was reportedly arrested during his time away, and then re-signed prior to the series with Worcester. "
If you go over and ask Davilla or any of the Spirit players, they would tell you that there had been trouble brewing between the two teams all weekend - a fact that was totally ignored by the media in general, although briefly alluded to in a quote in the Item's piece.
Also, I don't think it's fair to call two fights for a baseball team a "trend." It's pretty common for teams to have a couple of bench clearing incidents over the course of a long season. I don't know where the Worcester T&G reporter went to school --- Holy Cross, maybe? --- but where I come from, they teach me that two occurences of something does not equal a "trend."
In addition to that, I don't think the number of ejections to Vic Davilla is relevant in any way to any trend of 'violent behavior' by the team. Bobby Cox has the most ejections of any manager in baseball history. Are his teams assumed to be wild and unruly?
John Kennedy consistently led the league in ejections and he was tossed (count 'em) 12 times last year, but all you read about was how he kept a tight ship and ran a professional clubhouse. When he got ejected, it was OK.
Could it be because Kennedy is a graying old white guy who used to play in the Majors? It's not a popular question to ask, but I think it's fair in this situation. That was a blatantly irrelevant fact to use in the article.
Finally, in regards to C-Rod's off the field 'issues,' I heard that he had a run-in with police while he was on the team the first time, which prompted his release; I find it highly doubtful that the team would
1) release him for no reason
2) see that he gets arrested
3) sign him back after that
It would be nice if someone from the Item, or other media affiliated with the Spirit would put out some information from the Spirit perspective here, because the only media reports out there that actually cover the fight and don't gloss over it give the entire organization a huge black eye.
For the most part, the black eye is well deserved - Rodriguez is a numbskull, a jerk, and a bully for what he did on the field yesterday.
I think there's one quote to remember in regards to C-Rod: "Once a Capitale, always a Capitale."
It'll be interesting to see how the Spirit front office -- and Uncle Miles -- responds to this one.
Showing posts with label brawls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brawls. Show all posts
Monday, August 06, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Fireworks disrupt a quiet Sunday at the ballyard
Today, the crowd at Fraser Field was treated to a breathtaking game which the Spirit won 3-2 to sweep their 3-game series against the Worcester Tornadoes. But an ugly bench-clearing incident in the fourth inning stole the headlines from Ryan Bicondoa's oustanding victory.
In the middle of the fourth inning, seemingly out of nowhere, a brawl broke out. There is still confusion as to what actually set off the fight, but by most accounts, Carlos Rodriguez tossed a baseball either at Worcester pitcher Alex Pena on his way out of the dugout, or into the Worcester dugout in general. If this is the case, Rodriguez should never play another game in a Spirit uniform again, no matter what his official punishment is from the league. Carlos Marley has already had some off the field issues, but personal issues are one thing, endangering people on the baseball field is another thing entirely.
Rodriguez had been plunked by an 89 mph fastball earlier in the game, but that is no excuse for what he evidently did today.
According to numerous sources after the game, including one player, Worcester's Keith Beauregard had been 'getting into it' verbally with several Spirit players, including Dennis Robinson, throughout the weekend, which set up today's tensions.
In the actual fracas, Josue Lopez bulldozed three Tornadoes players, Rodriguez charged like a bull at a few players but came empty, and Beauregard and Robinson squared off head to head at around the second base bag.
Beauregard got Robinson into somewhat of a headlock and grabbed his hair, and Andy Theriault came flying out of the bullpen to smash Beauregard off of D-Rob.
One has to wonder what Rich Gedman --- absent for the second consecutive game --- would have thought about this ugly incident. I'm guessing he was not happy to hear the news.
Beauregard and bench player Greg Smith were tossed out of the game for Worcester.
On the Spirit side, Josue Lopez and Carlos Rodriguez were tossed. Rumor has it Robinson could be facing league sanctions at some point.
No coaches were ejected.
The most significant event to occur, though, as far as the game was concerned, was the fact that Worcester starter Alex Pena - who at the time had a no-hitter through three innings - hurt his wrist in the fracas and had to leave the game in favor of Reed Willets.
The Spirit responded immediately, as Luis Lopez ripped an RBI single to score Gary Roche to give North Shore the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th.
The lead held up until the 8th inning as Bicondoa was simply masterful, baffling Worcester hitters with a solid fastball at around 85-86 MPH and unhittable backdoor breaking balls in the low 80s.
After 7 innings of shutout, 2-hit ball, however, Bicondoa yielded the 1-0 lead in the 8th. Mike DeCarlo blasted a solo homer to deep left to tie the game at 1.
The Spirit rallied around their starter, however, and gave him the victory he deserved with a few clutch runs in the bottom of the 8th.
BJ Weed got it started off of Worcester reliever PJ Bevis with a 1-out single up the middle. Gary Roche followed with his 2nd hit of the day, which advanced Weed to 3rd base; Roche was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double.
With 2 out, Mike Torres hit a high chopper to the second baseman who tossed it toward first, but the ball scooted away from first baseman Yohanny Valera, allowing Torres to reach and Weed to score the go-ahead run.
Alex Trezza added an RBI single later on in the inning to score Torres and give the Spirit a 3-1 lead.
Worcester would not go quietly in the 9th. After Bicondoa got the first two men to go down easily, Omar Pena smashed a 2 out double, which prompted Vic Davilla to make the move to bring in Derek Drage.
As Bicondoa walked off the field, he of course received the rousing standing ovation he deserved for 8.2 excellent innings of work ----------- NOT. Needless to say, Fraser Church remained just that as one of the best pitching performances of the year came to an end.
Bicondoa's final line was very impressive: 8.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 7 K.
Derek Drage had a heart attack moment, giving up a double to Patrick Perry to make it 3-2, but he got Yohanny Valera to pop up to end the game and send the fans home happy.
It was North Shore's 7th straight victory over Worcester and second consecutive series sweep against our Commonwealth Cup rivals.
It should be an interesting off-day tomorrow - hopefully we can get the scoop about potential punishments (either from the league or from the team itself) that come down in response to todays extracurricular activities.
What shouldn't be lost in this, however, is the fact that Bic did an amazing job out there on the hill today. On to Brockton.
In the middle of the fourth inning, seemingly out of nowhere, a brawl broke out. There is still confusion as to what actually set off the fight, but by most accounts, Carlos Rodriguez tossed a baseball either at Worcester pitcher Alex Pena on his way out of the dugout, or into the Worcester dugout in general. If this is the case, Rodriguez should never play another game in a Spirit uniform again, no matter what his official punishment is from the league. Carlos Marley has already had some off the field issues, but personal issues are one thing, endangering people on the baseball field is another thing entirely.
Rodriguez had been plunked by an 89 mph fastball earlier in the game, but that is no excuse for what he evidently did today.
According to numerous sources after the game, including one player, Worcester's Keith Beauregard had been 'getting into it' verbally with several Spirit players, including Dennis Robinson, throughout the weekend, which set up today's tensions.
In the actual fracas, Josue Lopez bulldozed three Tornadoes players, Rodriguez charged like a bull at a few players but came empty, and Beauregard and Robinson squared off head to head at around the second base bag.
Beauregard got Robinson into somewhat of a headlock and grabbed his hair, and Andy Theriault came flying out of the bullpen to smash Beauregard off of D-Rob.
One has to wonder what Rich Gedman --- absent for the second consecutive game --- would have thought about this ugly incident. I'm guessing he was not happy to hear the news.
Beauregard and bench player Greg Smith were tossed out of the game for Worcester.
On the Spirit side, Josue Lopez and Carlos Rodriguez were tossed. Rumor has it Robinson could be facing league sanctions at some point.
No coaches were ejected.
The most significant event to occur, though, as far as the game was concerned, was the fact that Worcester starter Alex Pena - who at the time had a no-hitter through three innings - hurt his wrist in the fracas and had to leave the game in favor of Reed Willets.
The Spirit responded immediately, as Luis Lopez ripped an RBI single to score Gary Roche to give North Shore the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th.
The lead held up until the 8th inning as Bicondoa was simply masterful, baffling Worcester hitters with a solid fastball at around 85-86 MPH and unhittable backdoor breaking balls in the low 80s.
After 7 innings of shutout, 2-hit ball, however, Bicondoa yielded the 1-0 lead in the 8th. Mike DeCarlo blasted a solo homer to deep left to tie the game at 1.
The Spirit rallied around their starter, however, and gave him the victory he deserved with a few clutch runs in the bottom of the 8th.
BJ Weed got it started off of Worcester reliever PJ Bevis with a 1-out single up the middle. Gary Roche followed with his 2nd hit of the day, which advanced Weed to 3rd base; Roche was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double.
With 2 out, Mike Torres hit a high chopper to the second baseman who tossed it toward first, but the ball scooted away from first baseman Yohanny Valera, allowing Torres to reach and Weed to score the go-ahead run.
Alex Trezza added an RBI single later on in the inning to score Torres and give the Spirit a 3-1 lead.
Worcester would not go quietly in the 9th. After Bicondoa got the first two men to go down easily, Omar Pena smashed a 2 out double, which prompted Vic Davilla to make the move to bring in Derek Drage.
As Bicondoa walked off the field, he of course received the rousing standing ovation he deserved for 8.2 excellent innings of work ----------- NOT. Needless to say, Fraser Church remained just that as one of the best pitching performances of the year came to an end.
Bicondoa's final line was very impressive: 8.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 7 K.
Derek Drage had a heart attack moment, giving up a double to Patrick Perry to make it 3-2, but he got Yohanny Valera to pop up to end the game and send the fans home happy.
It was North Shore's 7th straight victory over Worcester and second consecutive series sweep against our Commonwealth Cup rivals.
It should be an interesting off-day tomorrow - hopefully we can get the scoop about potential punishments (either from the league or from the team itself) that come down in response to todays extracurricular activities.
What shouldn't be lost in this, however, is the fact that Bic did an amazing job out there on the hill today. On to Brockton.
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