By Josh:
It used to be that the phrase Manny being Manny would draw a smile and a laugh from baseball fans. Manny Ramirez was a great but very unusual baseball player. His antics were the talk of all of baseball for a time.
However, now the term Manny being Manny brings on a negative feeling as it now refers to Manny Machado, a spoiled kid who thinks he has earned the right to be king.
In a two game span against the Oakland A’s Machado whined about being tagged to hard, hit the catcher in the head TWICE with a bat and threw a bat in what appeared to be quite intentional and trying to hurt someone. Before I talk about what I think should happen to Manny let me break down these different incidents.
Now I know there has been a lot of talk lately about the ‘unwritten rules’ of baseball, but what Machado did in the last two games has nothing to do with unwritten rules, and everything to do with just being a lack of common sense.
First Machado whined about Josh Donaldson tagging him to hard. REALLY? Donaldson didn’t take a huge swing with his glove at Machado, didn’t hit him in the head, and was just trying to place a tag on Machado who was trying to avoid the tag.
Machado sounded just like a 6 year old boy complaining that a girl touched him and is giving him cooties, or a 7 year old complaining that someone else is breathing the same air as them.
The second set of incidents was Machado hitting the catcher twice with the follow through of his swing. Every once in a while you will see this happen. It isn’t uncommon but it normally happens when a batter is fooled on a pitch and reaches out with only one hand on the bat.
This wasn’t the case. In fact I would argue both times were done intentionally. When a batter does hit a catcher they automatically check on the catcher to make sure things are okay. Machado did not do this either time, and on the second time when the catcher was forced to leave the game he was smiling and laughing some.
The final incident was when Machado swang well after a pitch had gone by him and he released the bat into the field of play. My initial guess was that he wanted to hit the pitcher with the bat but instead nearly hit the third base umpire.
One incident alone is something that would probably have been overlooked or forgotten the next day, but all four moments strung together make Manny Machado look like a spoiled child who isn’t getting his way.
Do I think Machado should be suspended? Yes I do and at least 10 games for what he did. More importantly I think the rest of baseball should take not of this and go after Machado (throw at him) at least once a game. Not only to try and get him worked up but to try and get him to be suspended again.
He needs to learn you can’t hit players with bats or throw bats at players and think it’s funny. Unwritten rules aside this is common sense. But hey that’s just Manny being Manny.