The Madness and Idiocy of Major League Baseball

Three stories which indicate it might well be a very good thing if this season IS, in fact, the final season of Major League Baseball as it is currently known or (at the very least!) administered.

• We've had our first base-brawl of the year, and only one player got suspended for it.

Nick Castellanos (he, of the famed "long fly to left" meme), was banned for two games (and is appealing) for the incident.

On surface, it's the clear "unwritten rules" stuff.  Castellanos goes deep in the first and basically breaks the old "unwritten rules" and pisses off the pitcher on Opening Day.

The next day, Jake Woodford, on the first pitch of Castellanos' second at-bat, plunks him.  Obvious and deliberate.

Now, I agree with a lot of announcers on something:  If it's that clear and obvious what the problem was, toss the pitcher -- it's clear he plunked the guy.

That said, that's not the incident in question.

After taking his base (and a discussion with Yadier Molina), a hit gets him to third and the bases are eventually loaded, and a wild pitch forces Molina to go for the ball and Woodford to have to cover home plate -- where Castellanos is bearing down.

Hustle play, Castellanos is safe, but Woodford clatters on top of him and takes a knee in the back in doing so.  When they separate, Castellanos has a few words (and a flex) for him, Molina has a few words for Castellanos, shoves him in the back as Castellanos is walking away, and we have an incident!

Yada-Yada Molina, as I like to call him, is one of baseball's notorious hotheads.  This is part of long history of Molina's abuse of pretty much anyone who's not wearing Cardinal colors.  There's an incident on YouTube of him all but accosting an umpire in a game against San Francisco -- one-game suspension.

But Castellanos is the only player tossed.

I have no argument for him being tossed -- it's a great example to tell some of these pro-taunting fans of two things:  What constitutes taunting and why the rules are there.

But then you suspend him two games for taunting.  Because that's the only thing you could've suspended him for -- the lollipop in the first game and then the flex 

So why then:

• Was Molina not tossed and suspended for escalating the situation, like the hothead he is?
• Was Woodford not tossed and suspended beforehand for throwing at Castellanos?
• Was the umpiring crew not fined or suspended for screwing this all up and causing this in the first place?

Oh, and my anonymous friend makes a great point to me:  Nick Castellanos has now been punished more severely for taunting than any Houston Astro for basically rigging a world championship.

Or is it OK when it's "Fuck The Dodgers" and it's the meaningful opposite of the Black Sox?

But we're a week into the season, and that's not the only idiocy in Manfred-Ball...

• The other two stories come from Texas and today's Opening Day there, where Texas Governor Greg Abbott has made not only an ass of himself, but a complete mess of things.

Abbott was supposed to throw out the first pitch today for the opener in Arlington -- the first game with fans in the new stadium in Texas which was used for the World Series last year.

Abbott refused, citing MLB's decision to yank the All-Star Game from Georgia.

Oh, so we want to be a little bitch about it...  Look, it's clear that the QOP wants to go back to White, (cisgender-)male, Christian landowners being the only ones with any rights and the ability to vote.

I've had to listen to members of the QOP basically call women every derogatory name in the book and saying they are unfit for basically any rights which have been imposed upon men (please note my statement as the QOP's belief) in the last 100 years.

But then, we get the result of his misguided "Open Everything!" method.

I made reference to the fact that Australia and New Zealand earned the right to have a full-stadium rugby match by their adherence to protocols, etc.  (Which has largely been reversed because of the re-emergence of COVID-19 in that geographic theatre.)

Today was the first full-stadium large crowd in American sports since March 11, 2020.  38,238 paid for the game.

We haven't earned any of this.  Hell, even Gavin Newsom is far too soon as it is!!!

But Governor Abbott of the QOP seems to think he wants to see anyone not fit as a fiddle fall over on the street to this as "Another One Bites The Dust".

I'll have more to say on that, time permitting on Wednesday, before I head out for my vaccine.