Ryan Dempster is a coward and thug. Apparently like some other Red Sox players he has chosen to view the Alex Rodriguez situation as a personal affront. With obvious malice and premeditated planning Dempster deliberately threw pitches at Rodriguez multiple times in his first plate appearance in last night's Yankee game in Boston. Dempster just missed the knees of Rodriguez on the first pitch and finally drilled Rodriguez in the ribs on the fourth pitch, all of which were at or near Rodriguez. To his credit Rodriguez merely took his base rather than his revenge. Ironically, Rodriguez was the one who showed class. Ryan Dempster should have been arrested. Ryan Dempster was not even ejected by the umpires. Had Rodriguez retaliated as he seemed entitled to do by charging after Demptster, Rodriguez would surely have been suspended.
Was Dempster the Red Sox designated hitter, the journeyman marginal pitcher selected by his ignorant teammates to be the avenging Red Sox player to deliver their violent message of contempt for Rodriguez? If Dempster the individual really had a personal problem with the fact that Rodriguez was playing, then Dempster should have confronted Rodriguez face to face, man to man and had it out with him, even challenging Rodriguez to a fight if that's all that Dempster could muster as a primitive form of communication. But Ryan Dempster instead chose the coward's route, one traveled all too often in baseball, in which the pitcher with complete immunity takes the mound and from that elevated position proceeds to launch rockets at the object of his contempt. That is the coward's way. That is Ryan Dempster's way.
Ryan Dempster is a 36 year old pitcher near the end of a below average career (ERA+ 98), which started with Florida in 1998. Just in case you think this nobody is some kind of baseball player every-man, here is his total career compensation so far: $89,144,999 (source: baseball-reference.com). That's $89 MILLION dollars for Ryan Dempster. Who the heck ever bought a ticket to a game to see Ryan Dempster? Who the heck does Ryan Dempster think he is? Fans buy tickets to see stars like Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout and, yes, Alex Rodriguez. NOBODY buys a ticket to see Ryan Dempster and nobody in his right mind buys a ticket to see Ryan Dempster deliberately hit Alex Rodriguez.
To their disgrace nearly all the Red Sox fans in Fenway Park cheered this vigilante act. A pitcher deliberately hitting a batter is much worse than a batter using steroids. And these Boston hypocrites ignore the fact that the best player on the two Boston championship teams this millennium was Manny Ramirez, the only Hall of Fame caliber player to serve suspensions for using banned performance enhancing drugs (PED). Not to mention David Ortiz who is still a member of the Red Sox. All of Boston should be ashamed. Last night a representative sample of its population became the ugly mob. I've long thought that the two baseball teams combined, including coaches, had more black people than were in the stands for a typical baseball game at Fenway Park. Check for yourself the next time you watch a game there on TV. When the Red Sox took the field last night the closest player to a person of color was Shane Victorino. That must have been comforting to the most parochial narrow minded fans among the 28 cities that have MBL teams.
Later in the game in his final plate appearance against Ryan Dempster Alex Rodriguez hit a home run. Idiots will say that Rodriguez had exacted revenge. No. Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees played baseball. It was Ryan Dempster and the Red Sox who had operated outside the lines of decency.
So will Major Baseball League (MBL) commissioner Allen Huber "Bud" Selg do the right thing and punish Dempster as he deserves and send a clear message that individual acts of vengeance will not be tolerated? Or will Selig let the MBL descend into the National Hockey League? I'm guessing that Selig may suspend Dempster 8 games, which could translate to one missed start as it did for Ian Kennedy for hitting two Dodgers in the head in the same game.
Where are the priorities? Where is the good judgement? Where is the sense of justice?
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