A lonestar in california

You know, I never though an MLB player could ever do anything that would make me despise them more than I do Barry Bonds. But that was before I was treated to the Richie Sexson show on Thursday night.

I’m not sure I can convey exactly what happened with Sexson in words, as it’s simply to dumbfounding to me that a Major League baseball player could possibly be this much of a spineless pansy. But I will try. We jump into the action with 2 out in the 4th inning. Up to that point, Kason Gabbard had tossed 3.2 innings of shutout baseball, giving up 1 hit and walking 3. The score was 4-0, as the Rangers had scored twice in each of the first two innings – and the Mariners where obviously frustrated, as they had been shut out the previous night, and been hammered 10-1 on Tuesday. Seattle starter Felix Hernandez had plunked both Ian Kinsler and Gerald Laird already in the course of the first three innings, but things where about to really explode.

Richie Sexson stepped in, and the first pitch from Gabbard was a fastball, that apparently was overthrown, and zipped high up over the plate - Gerald Laird had to stand up to prevent it from heading to the backstop. The pitch may have been high, but it was in no way up and in, or anywhere close to Sexson. Despite this, Sexson made a dramatic show of spinning out of the way on a pitch that was actually at least a foot away from his body and head, and proceeded to charge the mound. Once he got to within a few feet of Gabbard, he lobbed his helmet full-force into Kason, who ducked and deflected it with his back, and then literally leapt upon the hapless pitcher with his entire 6′ 8″, 230-some pound frame, crunching him into the ground. Gerald Laird came running out and threw Sexson in a headlock to try and drag him off of Gabbard, as both benches emptied and piled on around the tangled trio. Once the smoke cleared, Sexson would be the only one thrown out of the game, while Gabbard, and even Gerald Laird, who had to be restrained by Milton Bradley and Felix Hernandez (who was restrained by former teammate Eddie Guardado) where all allowed to remain.

Before I go any further, I think I’ll hand it off to Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve, in this youtube clip of the aftermath of last nights 4th inning “incident”, and let you judge the chain of unfortunate events yourself.

Edit: MLB sucks. They took the video with Grieve’s comments off youtube. Furthermore, I cannot seem to embed the video here with WordPress (which either means I’m stupid, or WordPress sucks, I’m not sure which). For now, you can see the video featuring Grieve here - just don’t tell Bud Selig. Elsewhere is this redlasso video, from Yahoo baseball blog that shows and ESPN report of the brawl.

While that clip doesn’t include the entire commentary, (a transcript of which can be found here) I think Tom Greive’s summariztion of Sexson, which occurred just moments after the above video cuts off pretty much sums up Sexson’s actions:

“If he doesn’t get suspended for a week for that gutless move I’ll be shocked. #1 for charging the mound on a pitch that wasn’t even close. And then for getting 20 feet away and throwing the helmet at him like a girl. What a joke. Not to denigrate girls I don’t think girls would even do that.”

Priceless, and right on target – Tom Grieve at his best. I don’t believe I have ever witnessed a more shameless display of cowardly overreaction in an athlete. Richie Sexson’s actions, from over-dramatizing the high fastball that never came anywhere close to him, to charging the mound and assaulting Gabbard with his helmet are not just indescribably unprofessional and uncalled for, they where borderline criminal. I can only hope he gets the maximum suspension Major League Baseball can wreak upon him – if it where up to me, I would ban him for upwards of two weeks to a month for that stunt.

Gabbard, who had just come off the DL to make last night’s start, came out of the game two batters after he retook the mound with bruised legs, and no doubt a somewhat shaken psyche. After that, the Rangers bullpen took over and did a superb job to shut out the Mariners the rest of the game, and give the Rangers the last laugh for now, a 5-0 victory. Franklyn German (who got the win), Jamey Wright, Eddie Guardado, and Frank Francisco fired a combined 6.1 scoreless innings, striking out five, and allowing just two hits the rest of the way. That gives the Rangers bullpen, which has been superb of late after a rocky April, a 24-inning streak of scoreless ball.

In other Ranger news, unrelated to the game, or mid-game Jerry Springer show, Ben Broussard had been designated for assignment, and Travis Metcalf has been activated from the disabled list. This was to provide the Rangers with a backup option for the infield while Michael Young was unavailable Thursday due to his flexor strain. Young is expected to be back in the lineup Friday, but JD didn’t want to take the chance that an injury would force Young to be used in the field before he was ready. Still, this is just pretty much a procedural backup move - since Metcalf was called up straight from the DL instead of going on his scheduled minor league rehab assignment, he’s going to be sent right back down on Tuesday when Marlon Byrd comes off the DL – and I don’t imagine Travis will see any playing time before that.

But so ends the saga of Ben Broussard – I think I speak for most Ranger fans when I say PHEW!

A quick note on John Patterson – according to the DMN, it now “appears unlikely” that Patterson will pitch for the Rangers this season, as he has been advised to take “extended time off” from his throwing program by Dr. Keith Meister. Sigh.

And finally, some stuff concerning Ron Washington: as Evan Grant notes on the DMN blog, despite a recent report from the Dallas Observer that the Rangers where looking at candidates to replace Ron Washington, Jon Daniels says nothing is going to happen regarding Ron until the All-Star break, at the soonest. Looks like my prediction yesterday about Ron’s job security was correct, unfortunately. Although, if you look at the names mentioned in that Dallas observer report, none of them look any better than Ron: Don Baylor, Mike Hargrove, Jim Tracy and Jackie Moore. Who knows how much credibility you can give the Observer’s report, and their “unamed sources”, but that list almost makes me think putting up with Ron ain’t so bad. Almost. My opinion: Matt Walbeck or bust.

Today it’s a rematch of Sunday’s Scott Feldman/Greg Smith meeting, this time back home in Arlington. Smith held the Rangers to just one run on three hits last time, and struck out 10, so the Rangers need to do better this time around. We’ll see how Feldman does – he’s pitched very well in his two starts, but much like Sidney Ponson, we really haven’t seen enough yet to tell whether it’s a flash in the pan, or genuine potential. Even though I haven’t liked Feldman much in the past, he’s grown on me in his new role as a starter – I’d really like to see him succeed in it.