I’m all for getting rightful revenge, but after seeing our guys looking completely lost and wounded during this five-game losing streak, a couple wins to regain some mojo is much more important.

But I’ve been letting this sit for a few days now and I have to get it out. Hopefully, this will be the last of the drama and my need to unburden myself.

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Do you remember what you said when you saw Reds closer Aroldis Chapman fire an ill-intentioned 100 mile-per-hour rocket at Nick Swisher’s head on Monday afternoon?

I remember precisely what I said. It would’ve sounded like a Morse Code warning if it were to be repeated verbatim on TV or radio. I only wish I could’ve relayed my thoughts as eloquently as Hammy had.

And how about Swisher keeping his cool? Man, if that were me, I would’ve been out there swinging in retaliation like Darth Grievous, but with bats instead of his trusty lightsabers.

The thing is, Hamilton was simply saying what were all were thinking at that precise moment. It’s completely clear that Chapman was playing a potentially deadly game by targeting Swisher, and if we needed any more proof that Chapman just doesn’t get it, let’s all remember that this is also a guy who thought it was perfectly okay to do a somersault after nailing down a save. To the Reds credit, they didn’t let that slide. So it begs the question: How on earth can they be okay with his hot-headedness that could very well have dire, if not deadly, consequences for Swisher if one of these pitches connect?

Well, if you take into account the levels of delusion that the Reds region seem to exist in by their explaining away of Chapman’s actions, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m amazed no one said that Chapman couldn’t see Nick because of the Memorial Day-inspired camouflage hat. That would’ve made as much sense.

One time is plausible that it “just got away from him.” Twice is not. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe they’re painting Hamilton as a jerk because they don’t want to admit that their guy is a head-hunting buffoon. After seeing some of the responses from the Queen City, complete with outright trolling interspersed with their rationale of the “extra baserunners” argument, perspective was clearly lost. And it doesn’t hold a single drop of water when the video doesn’t lie.

When you’re dealing with the very real idea of a life and death situation possibly being an inch away, old baseball philosophies must fall by the wayside and common sense has to prevail. Or so I thought.

Reds fans and media types, maybe simply continuing and now emboldened their overt homerism defense mechanism, couldn’t even separate context from their imposed straw-grasping idea of on-air bigotry; using Hamilton’s “maybe that flies in Cuba” line as a rallying call just so they could have a stake in the fight away from the scoreboard, which they’ve unfortunately have gotten the better of so far in the home-and-home series.

Kinda tells you where their heads are at, huh? They’ve won the first two games of the four-game set rather convincingly, and they aren’t the ones with a beef. Yet they feel inclined to create controversy to cover over the real story. Ah, media…

Substitute “minors” with “Cuba” and you have the same exact point that Hammy was made. No different. Let’s be honest: If the Cuban National Team were integrated into the Major Leagues, it would be pretty much on par with what he was getting at.

If for nothing else, if baseball in Ohio needed a rivalry, it appears to have one now. I never had much of a problem with That Team Down South initially. They barely registered with me, to be honest. With just two wayward hurls, I can certainly say that has changed.

And thanks to Tom Hamilton for being our voice of reason through the good, bad, and, now unfortunately, stupid and dangerous times.

9 Comments

  • Sean Porter says:

    After that second pitch, that just missed Swisher’s head by less than a foot, I literally jumped off my couch (note: I had been sick all weekend and was almost fused into the couch by Monday) and started hurling expletives at my television like a drunken Joe Pecsi.

    Not only do I stand 100% behind Tom Hamilton, but I have serious doubts that a brawl would not had happened after Chapman ran his mouth after the fly ball.

    Seriously, can Ohio just sell Cincinnati to Kentucky?

  • Steve Alex says:

    I still don’t understand the umpiring double standard. Our guys get warnings and suspensions at the drop of a hat and this punk struts around running his mouth after throwing at a batter’s head and doesn’t hear a word about it from the league or the umpires. I wish Shelley Duncan had been in our dugout. I’d buy a ticket to that dance.

    • Drew says:

      “I wish Shelley Duncan had been in our dugout.” – typed by no one ever. So break your fingers before you ever type those words again.

      • Chris Burnham says:

        I think he means in terms of possibly being truly crazy to the point where he’d throw down at any moment at the slightest provocation.

    • Swift says:

      The umpire double standard (or completely random standard) is very troubling. And it isn’t just this incident, every time this happens in baseball, the umps seem to do a completely different thing, from Nothing, to warning both benches, to tossing players.

      Given how Carrasco was treated, Chapman should have been immediately tossed and given a multiple game suspension.

      As far as Tom Hamilton, he is a god as far as I’m concerned, and certainly the best sports announcer I’ve ever listened to.

      • Duke says:

        For the most part, whether to give warnings or not varies from ump to ump. Some give warnings right away, some don’t want to get involved unless they have to.

  • medfest says:

    The umpiring in this series has been lousy ,with both teams beefing,but to allow a pitcher to get away with what Chapman did without even a a warning is inviting a brawl.
    Until MLB cracks down on this lack of integrity it’s going to become a bigger and bigger problem,with more calls for larger use of intstant replay etc..

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