Beantown

The past few days have been tough on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. On Thursday Nick Adenhart, the 22 year old top pitching prospect, was killed by a drunk driver, a terrible tragedy no team should have to endure. Then on Sunday Josh Beckett nearly drilled Bobby Abreu in the head with a fastball on a called timeout. The benches cleared and Torii Hunter, Justin Speier, and manager Mike Scioscia were all ejected. The Angels won both games mentioned above and should be commended for their resilience in such a tough time. 

I would like to put the Josh Beckett incident under the microscope. This pitch was a bit fishy. Bobby Abreu came up to bat in the bottom of the first with 1 out and a man on second. The count was in favor of Josh Beckett at 1-2. With Chone Figgins, a threat to steal a base, at second base Josh Beckett was checking second base to make sure Figgins did not take off. However the amount of time taken to throw the pitch was highly inordinate at 11 seconds. Since Bobby Abreu was in the batters box for this whole time he chose to call time and the umpire granted him time out.  Apparently aggravated by such a preposterous decision to call time after an 11 second wait at the plate Josh Beckett threw a fastball near the head of Bobby Abreu well after time was called. Beckett was already in his windup but that does not excuse the pitch. Since Jason Varitek was setting up low and away before the pitch, up and in was clearly not where the pitch was supposed to go. 

After the pitch was thrown Bobby Abreu took a step back and looked at Josh Beckett with the "what the hell" look we are all familiar with. The umpire immediately went to restrain the stationary Bobby Abreu from advancing on Josh Beckett. The only problem with this is that at this point Josh Beckett was charging the plate. Inevitably the benches cleared and people were ejected. The people ejected were Justin Speier, Mike Scioscia, Mickey Hatcher, and Torii Hunter. Only Torii Hunter truly deserved to be ejected as he reacted with anger and needed to be restrained. Clearly Mike Scioscia was pulling an old managerial trick by getting ejected on his own volition. One person who was not ejected was pitcher Josh Beckett. Not only did Josh Beckett throw the pitch with intent to send a message, maybe not to hit Abreu, but he also charged the plate which may be a first as the pitcher is the one who threw the pitch. I do not know what the umpire was thinking in this situation. Over the past few years Beckett has established himself as a very accurate pitcher and knows where he is throwing the ball. Given this information it was clear that Beckett was throwing at Abreu. Lets say he hit Abreu which would have been in the head. Abreu might not be able to come back from an injury like that...ever. Think about that Beckett would have ended his career over a called time-out mid-windup. Really Beckett, did it annoy you that much to risk the career of Abreu. 

Suspensions were handed out and Josh Beckett was handed his due punishment. He was suspended 6 games and fined. Of the Angels ejected, Hunter, Scioscia, Speier, and Hatcher, only Hatcher was suspended for one game and the rest were fined.