Please understand I was being very facetious and dripping with sarcasm.
We know Baseball has the idiotic brushback rule - which while may be necessary in most circumstances the umpires use it much like grade school punishes a kid for drawing a picture of a gun.
It is going to get worse now that they are attempting to avoid collisions at home plate...I can see ‘going after a slider’ if he is going after the catcher intentionally, much the same if a slider goes out of the base line and does a ‘barrel roll’ into the infielder covering the base.
In Bryce Harpers rookie year Cole Hamels not only hit him intentionally BUT admitted it.
On the HBP at bat, Harper stole home and the next at bat he attempted to bunt....Harper is a roll back to the P Rose days (Rose would probably be ‘banned’ today) and I had the feeling that when he attempted to bunt up the 1st base line that he wanted to run up Hamels’ back in the process.
THAT is payback, especially when his pitchers can’t retaliate.
Right, I was just pointing out the inherent difference between the two sports and players self-policing players or not.
NFL only has 16 games in the regular season, MLB has 162. All the warnings that umps issue now does mess it up a little, but it still works. Doesn’t have to be the same offending player, doesn’t have to be the same series, and all the players know it. Same thing with pitchers DHed or pinched for. So even the rest of the players on the jerk’s team tell him to quit being a jerk.
In the NFL the modern officiating and the penalty system, multiple reviewable camera angles, and each game being so important makes sending messages much more risky as far as wins and losses. Thus choke signs and chest thumping dog squeeze on even marginally important plays.
Completely agree about Harper looking to run Hamels over, nothing but hard nosed play that I have seen so far. Some mistakes occasionally but you get that from any young player. I actually saw that game on MASN. Pretty amazing. He ran on the throw over to first. I hope the Nats can do what they are capable of doing this year. New manager seems like he is no joke.
Freegards