Major League Baseball has handed down the punishment stemming from the recent dust up between the Red Sox and Angels. Bob Watson, MLB’s head VP of discipline and rules (or some other screwy title that means he is the dude that punishes players), was nice enough to grow a pair and do what the game umpires were too scared to do and slapped the Red Sox on the wrist by suspending Josh Beckett for six games and fining him an undisclosed amount. Mike Scioscia, Torii Hunter and Justin Speier were also fined but not suspended.
It is nice to see that Bob Watson didn’t buy the load of horse puckey that Beckett was selling about how he would never, ever throw at anybody’s head. Anybody with half a brain could see that Beckett was displeased that Abreu called for time late and was trying to send a message. Now, Beckett can’t come straight out and say he threw at him on purpose without getting punished but don’t give us that “innocent little me” line.
I’m not even all that upset with Beckett for trying to send a message to Abreu, that kind of thing is an unwritten rule of baseball. However, the other unwritten rule is you do not throw at a guy’s head. Maybe this is just the Angels fan (who is tired of getting eliminated from the playoffs by Boston) in me talking, but Beckett was being a little punk and fully deserves the punishment and I will pretty peeved if the suspension is reduced on appeal. If he doesn’t like guys stepping out of the box on him, then maybe he shouldn’t take three hours between pitches.
As for the Angels getting fined, so be it. Hunter lost his cool and deserves the fine, Scioscia can just do another lame commercial for Howard’s to recoup the money and Speier has been stealing money from the Angels for a year and a half now, so this is just karma trying to even things up.
The Angels and BoSox hook up again in a month, so it should be interesting if there is any lingering bad blood, especially now that Beckett has been publicly singled out for head hunting.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
