Following Tuesday night’s bench clearing clash between the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees, the MLB gave suspensions to the two central troublemakers – Jorge Posada and Jesse Carlson. For their role in Tuesday night’s brawl, Posada and Carlson both got 4-game suspensions. Their suspensions happened to be reduced to 3 games since neither Posada nor Carlson fought the suspension.
If someone can explain to me how the MLB came up with 4 games each, I’d truly appreciate it.
When it comes to the number of games a player gets for his actions, it’s anyone’s guess. It appears to me there are no firm rules for penalties. That’s a large dilemma in my eyes.
Let’s have a look at two non-drug related suspensions that have been given so far in 2009:
Does everyone else see what’s wrong here? There’s no rhyme or explanation for all of the suspensions.
How did Youkilis and Porcello get five games for provoking a bench-clearing fracas, but Posada and Carlson only received 3 games? What did Youkilis and Porcello do differently that their fight resulted in 2 extra games?
In my belief, a bench-clearing fight is a dugout-clearing brawl. They’re similar to coincidences; there are no levels.
How does Beckett receive a six-game penalty for pitching at someone’s head, although Zambrano becomes the same game suspension for roughing up a water cooler? I did not realize possibly ending someone’s career could be just as detrimental as roughing up an inanimate object.
This is not a Red Sox-Yankee dilemma – this is a reasonable issue. I feel like I’m off the rocker even writing something such as this. If you do A, you get B. It’s as easy as that.
Major League Baseball – and I am talking about you Bob Watson – has to come up a benchmark suspension for each infraction.
Right now, it just doesn’t make any sense.
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