Gomez needs help

[Thunderheads]

Gomez allegedly started it.  Cole charged him at third base shouting obscenities...charging somebody throwing obscenities in their direction is escalating in my book.  

 

Then Gomez was walking away and some other a$$hat from Pittsburgh probably started shouting at him in spanish which made him do what he did.

 

Did he overreact?  Sure.  But it's not all on him.

I can agree with this no problem ..... I can't agree that Cole "charged him" ....he was getting the ball from F5 .....but other than that, I can see it.

 

Gomez's Atlanta escapade (for me) gives him ZERO rope in my book

[johnnyg08]

Yeah, Gomez is certainly not the innocent bystander.  He's a bit of a hot head.  He's young...kind of like Harper.  Young people do stupid things.  They'll grow up.

[Replacematt]

 

Gomez allegedly started it.  Cole charged him at third base shouting obscenities...charging somebody throwing obscenities in their direction is escalating in my book.  

 

Then Gomez was walking away and some other a$$hat from Pittsburgh probably started shouting at him in spanish which made him do what he did.

 

Did he overreact?  Sure.  But it's not all on him.

I can agree with this no problem ..... I can't agree that Cole "charged him" ....he was getting the ball from F5 .....but other than that, I can see it.

 

Gomez's Atlanta escapade (for me) gives him ZERO rope in my book

 

 

So, a guy intentionally hurts him, he gets threatened again, and you blame him?

[zm1283]

Gomez came off the base after being mouthed at by Cole.  He could've mouthed right back from the base....he chose to vacate the base and carry it further.  Dude has "self admittedly" got some issues.  

 

He did mouth back at Cole, then the PU stepped in and got Gomez away and Cole was walking away. That's when Snider came in and went after Gomez. Snider is the blame for it re-escalating after everyone was separated. 

 

 

 

No, Cole escalated the incident.

disagree.

Gomez taking off his helmet and coming off of 3rd to approach Cole actually excalated it.  Not saying that Cole was right, but ........

 

 

Cole started the whole thing by going to get the ball and running his mouth at Gomez to start with. There is no reason Cole shouldn't have been suspended. Gomez isn't without blame, but Cole and Snider started and re-started the whole thing. 

[Thunderheads]

 

 

Gomez allegedly started it.  Cole charged him at third base shouting obscenities...charging somebody throwing obscenities in their direction is escalating in my book.  

 

Then Gomez was walking away and some other a$$hat from Pittsburgh probably started shouting at him in spanish which made him do what he did.

 

Did he overreact?  Sure.  But it's not all on him.

I can agree with this no problem ..... I can't agree that Cole "charged him" ....he was getting the ball from F5 .....but other than that, I can see it.

 

Gomez's Atlanta escapade (for me) gives him ZERO rope in my book

 

 

So, a guy intentionally hurts him, he gets threatened again, and you blame him?

 

threatened again?

[Replacematt]

 

 

 

Gomez allegedly started it.  Cole charged him at third base shouting obscenities...charging somebody throwing obscenities in their direction is escalating in my book.  

 

Then Gomez was walking away and some other a$$hat from Pittsburgh probably started shouting at him in spanish which made him do what he did.

 

Did he overreact?  Sure.  But it's not all on him.

I can agree with this no problem ..... I can't agree that Cole "charged him" ....he was getting the ball from F5 .....but other than that, I can see it.

 

Gomez's Atlanta escapade (for me) gives him ZERO rope in my book

 

 

So, a guy intentionally hurts him, he gets threatened again, and you blame him?

 

threatened again?

 

 

Yeah. Maholm intentionally put him on the DL, McCann talked about repeating history, and you blame Gomez, after a HR in that PA, for responding back? 

 

Edit: Not that it matters, but I don't think he ever went on the DL, but just couldn't play for a while.

[Thunderheads]

 

 

 

 

Gomez allegedly started it.  Cole charged him at third base shouting obscenities...charging somebody throwing obscenities in their direction is escalating in my book.  

 

Then Gomez was walking away and some other a$$hat from Pittsburgh probably started shouting at him in spanish which made him do what he did.

 

Did he overreact?  Sure.  But it's not all on him.

I can agree with this no problem ..... I can't agree that Cole "charged him" ....he was getting the ball from F5 .....but other than that, I can see it.

 

Gomez's Atlanta escapade (for me) gives him ZERO rope in my book

 

 

So, a guy intentionally hurts him, he gets threatened again, and you blame him?

 

threatened again?

 

 

Yeah. Maholm intentionally put him on the DL, McCann talked about repeating history, and you blame Gomez, after a HR in that PA, for responding back? 

 

Edit: Not that it matters, but I don't think he ever went on the DL, but just couldn't play for a while.

 

ok, ...fair enough.  I've never heard or read of reports, etc that Maholm intentionally put him on the DL, but ... let's say it's true

 

What do you think is going to happen (put yourself in Gomez's shoes) if you pull a stunt like he did w/ Atlanta on an MLB field?

A) he's either going to piss off the opposing team to a point where it causes a fracas (happened)

or B) he's going to take one in the ear next time at bat

[MadMax]

AHA! See? I _knew_ it went back to something between Maholm and Gomez, @Thunderheads... Thanks to @Matt for submitting it here.

 

There are interactions that we as umpires, surprisingly enough, are privy to... that being exchanges between batter and catcher (and pitcher), or BR/R1 and F3 (after a single), etc. There are of course incidents of bad blood between teams in rivalries, or between individual players because (for example) Batter dumped Pitcher's sister last week. High School, Collegiate, Minors... we have archives full of fights breaking out during baseball games, and that's just for the emotional / competitive part of it.

 

Professional Ball doesn't mean they (the participants) are going to act any more angelic. It just means there's a lot of money involved (paychecks). Unlike any other sport, the two primary participants are not on equal terms. Football - Both are wearing helmets and both are wearing pads, and both have equal opportunities to clobber each other. Basketball - Both are more or less defenseless. Hockey - The sport where the fights are still celebrated, both are wearing pads and carrying sticks that can (and have) cause(d) injury. But Baseball - the batter may have a bat, but the pitcher has (more or less) a rock that he's throwing at over 85 MPH and can debilitate or kill.

 

In hockey, soccer (needed to add that) and football, if you don't like the scorer's celebration, then the impetus is pretty simple on you – don't let 'em score in the first place! If I don't like the way that Patrick Kane does that stupid post-goal-scoring glide of his, then dammit, I (as a defenseman) shouldn't have let him get that shot off. There's not much I can do about it, unless I want to skate over there and deck him and incur the game misconduct penalties and probably an a$$-whipping. Oh sure, I can drill him into the boards next chance I get (if that wasn't a game-ender like it was last night), but I'll probably, again, draw a penalty for doing so, or I'll get into a fistfight with somebody. This can be applied to a hard foul in basketball, or a unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in football, or a nasty slide tackle in soccer. Each of those retributive actions have consequences. 

 

What I'm getting at is Baseball is different. What happened in the past, is if you were celebrating or grandstanding a big hit (HR) or some other big action, what was the retributive action? The pitcher would typically throw at or plunk the next guy up. There was an unwritten code amongst ballplayers, enforced even among teammates! – you don't grandstand a home run because you're putting your teammate's livelihood / health / life at risk. However, in recent developments, pitchers are getting fined and/or suspended for plunking players, especially in retaliation. So pitchers are getting all bent at being shown up.

 

Mix in what I was saying earlier, about stuff being said between catchers and batters that the casual fan doesn't hear (but we do as umpires). Yadier Molina is known to be a trash-talker, as are several other catchers (AJ Piersynski and the aforementioned Brian McCann come to mind). McCann puts out a lot of it because look at his size and offensive output. So, you can see from the video clip, McCann is actually jawing with Gomez while GoGo is stepping into the box... And if what Matt says is true, then GoGo's reaction to parking one against his nemesis – a guy who is a #3/#4 starter at best on an average team – is completely understandable. Back when I was a catcher, I remember myself bantering with batters who had my pitcher's number, trying to get in their heads so they were off-kilter.