It won't play in Peoria

The Peoria Chiefs (Cubs) were at the Dayton Dragons (Reds) last night and the game made the national news. That's almost never a good thing. When minor league teams make the national media, it's either because a player did something particularly unusual (there's the famous highlight of the right fielder literally running through the outfield wall to make a catch), or because the news is bad. More often than not, the big league team doesn't want to see their affiliates' names in the press unless it's in the context of, "Ortiz reported to the Sea Dogs for a rehab assignment."

Otherwise they're looking at news like Mike Coolbaugh's freak death, or Delmon Young's assault of an umpire.

The Cubs can't be happy this morning. And of the two teams, they're the ones that should have the most trouble from today's news. The roots of the incident were summarized in the AP report as -

Dayton pitcher Kyle Lotzkar hit Peoria's Nate Samson with a pitch in the top of the first. In the inning's bottom half, Castillo hit Dayton's Zack Cozart in the head with a pitch. Cozart fell to the ground, was helped to the dugout and didn't return.

Several batters later, Castillo hit Angel Cabrera, who angrily threw his bat and batting gloves toward his dugout before taking first. Dayton's next batter hit an infield grounder, and Cabrera made an aggressive slide into second to break up the double play.

Castillo followed that with a high-and-tight pitch to the next batter, Brandon Menchaca, prompting Dayton manager Donnie Scott to complain to the home plate umpire. Interim Peoria manager Carmelo Martinez came on the field to join the discussion.

That led to an argument between the two managers, and when Martinez pushed Scott, the benches emptied.

All of this led to Castillo, after the benches emptied, throwing a fastball at the opposing dugout which went into the stands and injured a fan. Castillo is currently facing charges for aggravated assault and, if you saw the footage, is likely facing jail time.

I want to dissect what happened here, because a lot of this should never have happened, and almost all of this can be laid at the feet of Martinez, the team's interim manager while Ryne Sandberg is in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame ceremonies, and the umpires.

Lotzkar was a compensatory first round pick in the supplemental draft. On the season, according to minors.baseball-reference.com he's 0-3 in four starts (16 innings pitched) with a 6.19 ERA, giving up 14 runs (11 earned) on 14 hits, and 15 walks with one hit by pitch (I don't know if that includes yesterday's game) and one wild pitch. Not a pitcher with the best control in the world.

Contrast that with Castillo who has appeared in six games with three starts over 22 innings and put together a 2.86 ERA with 22 hits and 10 walks.

Lotzkar, projected for the same number of innings gives up 19 hits and walks 21. Tell me, which of the two of these guys sounds like they have no trouble finding the strike zone? The one who has less than half the number of walks than hits allowed, or the one who has issued more free-passes than given up hits?

Yet, somehow Castillo hit the first batter in the head, then beaned another and nearly, according to reports, hits a third in the head.

After Castillo hit the first guy - considering he hit him in the head and the player didn't return - the ump should probably have tossed him then. At the very least a warning should have been issued and there's no way Castillo should have still been on the mound after the second batter was hit.

Given that the umps didn't do this, it was certainly understandable that Dayton manager Scott would want to talk to the umpire. What I don't understand is why Martinez felt he needed to be out there. There was no reason for him to be out there.

All Martinez did was escalate the issue, attacking the other team's manager when he shouldn't have been anywhere near the man.

The only way for this to be handled properly - Castillo needs to serve jail time and the Cubs need to can Martinez. I can't help but think that if Sandberg was sitting on the bench, at least some of this wouldn't have escalated the way it did.

If you missed it, here's the ESPN footage -

Mob Mentallity

"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

-Agent K, Men in Black

I've been inspired to touch on something because of a debate that I've having with Lisa over at A Red Sox State of Maine. I won't rehash that conversation over here, but I do want to touch on the decay of fandom.

It is something I have discussed before, to some extent.

I think that over the last 20 years we have witnessed a decline in etiquette from fans while we have progressively become a society of entitlement. More and more often we are reading about schools and teachers that no longer discipline children because parental reactions aren't, "what did my child do wrong." Rather, most parents' reactions are, "what did you do to my child." Personal responsibility is going out the window.

This is as evident with fans as anywhere else.

With the purchase of a ticket to an event, people feel that their money spent gives them the right to act inappropriately.

As late as 1960 people still dressed in their Sunday best for a day at the ball park. While I understand not dressing to a tee to go to a game, there was enough respect for what was happening on the field that most of what goes on now didn't happen then.

People feel that the money spent gives them the right to throw syringes at Barry Bonds, batteries at JD Drew, beer bottles at opponents in Cleveland, and curse and spit at children and adults wearing opponents' uniforms in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Sure, it gives them the right to cheer or boo accordingly, to show your approval or disapproval of what happens on the field, but that right stops when the actions make other fans feel threatened, or could do damage to...well, anyone.

No batteries. No bottles. No syringes. No threats. No spitting.

In 2003 in Chicago there were four separate incidents of fans running on the field during a White Sox-Royals game. This culminated in the assault of one of the umpires by a couple of the fans. There was also the assault of the Royals first base coach by a father-son tandem in Chicago.

Sports Illustrated has a list of eleven incidents of fan boorishness and assault of which only one incident is before 1974, and eight of them are since 1984. It is by no means a complete list.

The incidents are legion, and they didn't start at the professional games.

Unfortunately, parents and youth coaches are regularly setting a horrible example for future generations, engaging in this same behavior at little league games and pee wee football. Just last year a mob attacked the umpires at a little league game in New Hampshire. There was, in Philly, a man who pulled a gun on his son's youth football coach because he felt the boy wasn't getting enough playing time, or the coach in Pittsburgh who paid his pitcher $25 to throw at an autistic player on an opposing team.

Does racism play a part? Yes. Is it the driving force? I have my doubts. I think that it's more the mass stupidity. The heavy drinking. And the belief that a ticket entitles them to be morons.

Cry me a river

I've been meaning to comment on this for several days now - the MLB Umpire's Union crying foul over the fact that baseball's executive offices, in the wake of the NBA ref scandal, wants the umpires to undergo background checks.

"We understand the need in light of what's taken place. But we feel we just don't need to have a knee-jerk reaction and a witch hunt,'' Lamell McMorris, spokesman for the World Umpires Association, told Sports Illustrated.

I understand that as the spokesman for the WUA, McMorris has a responsibility to his constituents to put the worst possible face on MLB's request. Unfortunately, he is giving in to severe hyperbole in describing what most of the rest of the baseball viewing public is viewing as a reasonable request.

I know I'm not alone in watching umpires with erratic strike zones and wondering how a pitch in the top half of an inning is a strike and in the bottom half a ball.

While I don't think background and credit checks are needed for all jobs, it seems to make perfect sense to me that it would and should be needed for game officials on the professional and collegiate levels.

In 2003, on-line gamblers in the US bet an estimated $6 billion and the estimated gross amount for sports wagering on-line (worldwide) was in excess of $63 billion. According to the Online Gambling Research and Markets Group, on-line gambling will reach $125 billion by 2015.

Is it really too much for a professional sports league to ask that they have every reassurance that their game officials aren't beholden to sports bookies?

What really bothers me about the WUA's stance is the last item they sent to MLB offices demanding that this be negotiated, and that the following statement was in the letter - "The safeguards that will be adopted to ensure that umpires will not be subject to disciplinary or other adverse job actions stemming from or based upon any of the information."

In essence, they are saying that if we agree to let you do these background checks, we don't want you to be able to do anything about it if you find that one of the umpires is doing something he/she shouldn't be doing.

This is all indicative of a greater problem in professional sports.

The inability of the groups to realize that, ultimately, the most important aspect of what they are doing is creating a product.

For example, in television, there is a misconception that the program is the product and that viewers are the target. The product in television is the audience, the program is the vehicle by which a television station builds product to sell to advertisers. The program is designed to capture certain types of audiences to sell to certain types of advertisers (ie: we are going to produce a news show called The View, the demographic will be stay-at-home moms, and women pushing into middle age, we are going to try to sell this advertising block to Folger's Coffee, tampon producers, and family restaurants). It is why quality programming is often ditched for poorly written pablum that appeals to the masses. Small loyal audiences don't demand the advertising dollars.

In the case of professional sports, the product is the game. Sure, there are spin-offs - jersey's, caps, bobble-heads, etc., but none of those exist without the game and the fan base for each team.

It seems like most of the pro-leagues and their unions are forgetting about the importance of the product. What the umpires are saying to me is that they don't give a rats ass about the product as long as they can get something in exchange for what they should already be doing.

The MLB players' union long ago told me it didn't care about the product - and often still reminds me by telling their players things like, "don't cooperate with the Mitchell investigation."

The NBA has a variety of similar issues from players like "Starbury" to refs that seem to think they are the reason people come to the games.

Roger Goodell is giving a good-faith effort along with the player's union in football, but this attitude of insult over the franchise tag does the players no favors - nor do hold-outs by rookies who have yet to prove anything

I'm not even going to get into ticket prices.

My message to the umpires - shut-up and submit to the checks, or find a job like the ones the rest of us have.