Maybe Something Good Came of Anthony Rizzo Obliterating Austin Hedges

Last night, Anthony Rizzo trucked through San Diego Padres catcher Austin Hedges in a play at the plate that looked like a clear violation of MLB's fairly recent rule prohibiting a runner from "deviating from his path in order to initiate contact with the catcher."

Hedges held on for the out, but was clearly shaken up and was taken out of the game. He's not going to play tonight, but he's not expected to go on the disabled list, either.

After the game, Padres manager Andy Green was pretty fired up about the play, and strongly hinted he thought Rizzo should be suspended for it. He made it clear he didn't think Rizzo was a dirty player, or that the play itself was dirty, but that it was against the rules and he should be punished for it. Green brought up an excellent point in his postgame that when you have a rule in place that is explicitly designed to protect the catcher, and the catcher relies on it, you invite injuries like this because he's not expecting to get run over.

Today, Green brought up an even better point, about the stupid, macho nature of retaliation that has infected Major League Baseball forever. He was asked if the Padres were going to retaliate against Rizzo and he explained exactly why that was a stupid question.

Holy shit, do I love this answer. There is absolutely no benefit to retaliation. None. I don't want to hear anything about sending a message that "you can't do that up here." Even the chumps in the bleachers half cocked on $17 dollar beers know this. How, then does a major leaguer not? Or minor leaguer? Or a college ballplayer? And yet, shit still happens, doesn't it? Message clearly not received.

The concept of retaliation in baseball is a perfect example of a bunch of dudes with sticks up their asses and testosterone leaking out of every pore wanting to get their licks in. There is nothing gained by doing this, and Green explains exactly how you are actually hurting yourself. Sometimes you just gotta be the bigger person and say You fucked up, you know you fucked up, and we're moving on.

We can only hope that (slowly, I am sure) the rest of baseball catches on to this way of thinking and we can begin to move past the unwritten rules that, by their very nature, cause so many problems. On the other hand, baseball may have bigger fish to fry. Rizzo told reporters that he spoke to Joe Torre, and that MLB's chief baseball officer said he violated the rules but would not be punished. So even the written ones don't work.