My love of the game of baseball started at the age of 8 and, in various degrees, has continued to this day. I don”t love the sport today with nearly the passion I did in my youth, when I was physically playing the game. And, many issues surrounding Major League Baseball over the past couple of decades have caused me to pay much less attention to what has long been referred to as our “national pastime.”
One element of professional baseball that I have deplored ever since I began watching Major League games is the bean ball. The brush back and bean ball pitches have been part of the game since the very early days of professional baseball. Many Major League pitchers hurl the baseball at speeds well into the 90 mph range these days. Some pitchers can peg the radar gun at more than 100 mph. An object traveling at that velocity from 60 feet, 6 inches can easily kill a man.
Because of that fact, I don”t understand why Major League Baseball has not been able to rid the game of this dangerous component. This week, Prince Fielder, of the Milwaukee Brewers was deliberately hit by a pitch from Guillermo Mota. Mota was ejected for the action and Fielder charged toward the Dodger”s clubhouse to find Mota. He was restrained by his teammates just in time.
Players have always said that they understand why bean balls are used. Pitchers might want to intimidate a player who has been hitting well. Managers have been known to instruct a pitcher to purposely hit a batter because the other team”s pitcher hit one of his players. I have heard all the reasons and I don”t believe there is one good reason to throw a 90 mph or faster baseball at a human being. I think it borders on being criminal.
In the history of Major League Baseball, there has only been one case of a player being killed by a bean ball. It was way back in 1920, well before protective batting helmets were introduced to the game. Ray Chapman was hit by a pitch from Carl Mays, who had a reputation of being a “headhunter” when he needed to cool down a hot hitter. Historians have written that in 1920 baseballs were not nearly as white as they are today, plus players were notorious at darkening the ball even more in that era with tobacco juice or licorice spit. It was reported that Chapman never even saw the ball that hit him in the head. He died in the hospital a few days later.
I always wondered why my little league coach would always teasingly tell me to throw the “dark ball” in his words of encouragement. Now I know what he meant.
Helmets may protect most of a player”s head these days, but there have been other serious injuries caused by bean balls in recent baseball history. In 1979 Mike Jorgenson was hit in the head by a pitch from Andy Hassler. Jorgenson wound up with a blot clot in his head that caused a seizure before being taken care of.
In the modern era of baseball there have been many pitchers with a reputation for throwing at hitters intentionally. Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, Joba Chamberlain, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson have all been known to offer up the old “chin music” when they felt it was needed.
I feel that not enough has been done by the commissioner, owners and managers to end the existence of the bean ball. I am hopeful that the Prince Fielder incident will force Major League Baseball to finally get serious about removing this violent activity from the sport that millions of Americans still love. Perhaps long-term suspensions without pay to pitchers and managers would end the foolishness.
Gary Dickson is the editor and publisher of the Record-Bee. He can be contacted at gdickson@record-bee.com or 263-5636, ext. 24.
