But the Phillies are the worst team in baseball as a quick glance at the standings indicates, so his opportunities to save games were not only limited, they were also irrelevant. Because of this, Papelbon will miss all seven of the team’s remaining games. A relief pitcher who thinks it’s kosher to throw twice at the head of a guy who took another pitcher over the fence a couple of innings earlier is in no position to be playing field or dugout sheriff.
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I previously highlighted both the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins, and next up is the Washington Nationals, a club that looked destined for a playoff spot just two months ago.
Well, it wasn’t the worst.
The Nationals closer’s jersey went from prominently displayed to conspicuously missing after Washington’s 12-5 drubbing at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies-a game wherein Papelbon went full Bobby Knight and attempted to choke teammate Bryce Harper for failing to run out a pop-fly.
On Monday, the Nats suspended Papelbon for four games. Papelbon received 3 games from the league for throwing at Manny Machado and 4 other games from the team for fighting with Bryce Harper in the dugout. Despite the outrage throughout the Western world, a few within the Nationals organization respect Papelbon and what he was trying to do.
New York Times sports columnist Tyler Kapner excoriated several aspects of the incident.
And coincidentally or not, the closer Papelbon replaced in Washington, Drew Storen, had a 1.64 ERA before the trade and a 7.56 ERA after it. Moreover, Papelbon’s attack on Harper may contribute to Nationals manager Matt Williams losing his job.
Jonathan Papelbon has been suspended for the remainder of the season by the Nationals and Major League Baseball. Ted Berg says that Harper is not to blame for the Nationals’ disappointing season, and he’s right. Bottom line: If you’re going to scuffle, don’t do it in the dugout. Williams should be fired as soon as the season is over and black-listed from all managerial openings. That is something that is often learned the hard way by ballplayers. “Incidents like that in the dugout (are) not the way we want to play our games”.
That is the reputation of the Nationals throughout baseball – they aren’t very tough. “I’m not a big fan of making them feel like outcasts”, Indians manager Terry Francona said.
Others noted that most of the empty seats were in right field where the sun itself was pretty brutal, the rest of the ballpark hanging in there and cheering. When it seemed like no team wanted to take on the headache of having Papelbon in their clubhouse, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo oddly pulled the trigger on a deal for Pap, sending pitching prospect Nick Pivetta to the Phillies.
It sounds insane when you spell it out like that, but tons of baseball players and baseball fans blindly accept the notion.
No doubt all that is true. Just like players who strike out 150 times a season, the game has changed.
Carlos Correa hit 18 home runs in his 229 minor league games entering this year.
■ But don’t be bitter.
The Daily News reviews what the Mets’ current players were up to back in 2006. He was dismissing a dumb question about being underage and celebratory beer drinking. In the midst of the Pope Francis visit last week came the sad news that Berra had died at age 90. (Is it obvious I still use a thesaurus?) So when I said Bryce Harper needed choking I was probably only 97 percent serious.
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“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore”. “From day one it was just a mistake, and I feel so strongly about it that perhaps giving money to a good cause is a good way of bringing attention to the fact that the fans are not accepting of the situation”.
