Apparently, in Planet Yankee, if you charge the field and then are not daintily sidestepped or placed gently on the ground, despite the fact that you were running, swinging at someone like an out of control madman, you are a victim.
Pedro was behaving like a child, but Zimmer is to blame, and his being pushed to the ground in self-defense is his own stupid fault. I don;t give a shit if someone has bad knees and is 72 years old, if they come at me, I am defending myself. Yankee fans kill me- maybe if Pedro had just thrown a broken bat at Zimmer the Yankee fans would defend him.
*** Update ***
Ny Mayor and Yankee fan shows he is a moron:
Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez should have been arrested for throwing 72-year-old Yankees coach Don Zimmer to the ground during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday.
“If that happened in New York we would have arrested the perpetrator,” Bloomberg said. “Nobody should throw a 70-year-old man to the ground, period. You start doing that pretty soon you’re going to throw a 61-year-old man to the ground, and I have a big vested interest in that.”
“You just cannot assault people, even if it’s on a baseball field,” added Bloomberg, who was asked about Saturday’s bench-clearing matchup before marching in the Bronx Columbus Day Parade.
Which is great, EXCEPT THAT ZIMMER WAS ASSAULTING PEDRO. What Bloomber reall said was:
“Attention 70 year old men- you are free to assault anyone you want in any of the five burroughs, and should something nasty happen to you in the middle of your crime, we will arrest and charge your victim.”
Idiots.
michele
Hold on, I never once defended Clemens. In fact, I can’t stand him.
I stil think Pedro was a punkass for pushing Zimmer, even if Zimmer was wrong to go after him.
John Cole
I know you hate him- that is why I said Yankee fans and not you individually.
Regardless, it was ano-win situation for Pedro. If he let Zimmer attack him, everyone would be calling him a pussy. If he actually fought Zimmer, he would have been in the wrong. IF he had run, he would be called a pussy. So he simply deflects the blows and pushes him to the ground so he an’t attack again, and *GASP*, Yankee fans call Pedro a punk.
Pretty damn funny.
Oh, no
Wow, this whole thing has got me seriously questioning Jay’s good sense for the first time. I am neither a Yankee fan nor a Sox fan, and in fact, I usually find myself wishing a plague on both their houses. Still, I find nothing wrong in what Martinez did. A croozy old coot was charging him, and there was a melee going on. Was Martinz supposed to head for the dugout to avoid the charging codger? Sidestep him, he says? What the hell is that? Was Zimmer going to blow past him on into the outfield, carried by old-man momentum? Wrap him up? What, stand there with his arms around the old fart while Clemens comes up on him with a bat? Come on, Jay. Maybe if Martinez had hauled off and coldcocked the old buzzard you’d have a point. Caruso has done the impossible: he’s actually got me pulling for the Sox now.
Lonewacko: I Blogged Across America and I didn't visit NYC because no one there wanted to meet me
Z. is a bit heavy, but I somehow don’t think he’s either a sumo wrestler or a weightlifter, and I think M. could have at least have avoided pushing him to the ground. If a senile 92-year-old starts waving his cane at you, do you shoot him? No, you take the frigging cane away.
Greg
I realize this whole thing is causing a brother-against-brother kind of rift in the blogosphere, but I’ve got to agree with you, John.
Let’s assume for a second that both Zimmer and Martinez were acting half their shoe size. If I saw my three-year-old come charging at my six-year-old swinging fists, and my six-year-old brushed her aside and made her fall to the ground, I’d have the same reaction. When my three-year-old came to me complaining, I’d say, “Yeah, I’m sorry you got hurt, sweetie, but you shouldn’t have tried to punch her. It’s your fault.”
End of story. Under the circumstances, Pedro could have done much worse.
Jay Caruso
If I saw my three-year-old come charging at my six-year-old swinging fists, and my six-year-old brushed her aside and made her fall to the ground, I’d have the same reaction.
Greg, the only problem with your scenario is that the ages are off. In equating Zim to Pedro it would be more like a 3 year charging an 8 or 9 year old not a 6 year old. The 8 or 9 year old grabs the 3 year old by the back of the head and throws him to the ground.
I doubt any parent of a 3 year old child would simply say “It was your fault” if they saw a kid old enough to be in the third grade grabbing their 3 year old child by the back of the head and throwing them to the ground.
Again, this is not a matter of excusing Zimmer for what he did which is what people are accusing me of. That’s crap. He knows he was wrong and my feelings are that he should have been ejected instead of allowed to sit and giggle on the bench the rest of the game.
That still doesn’t excuse Martinez’s reaction which wasn’t just ‘pushing.’
John Cole
Jay- When are you goingto get it? It does not matter what Pedro’s reaction was, because in our society, we do not blame the victim. Zimmer ATTACKED Pedro. Got it?
Having said that, I believe that Pedro’s reaction was exceptionally mild- push the assailant to the ground to keep him from continuing to attack you, and then make sure he doesn’t.
There was a reason Zimmer was crying and claiming he was embarassed at the press conference- he, unlike the Yankee sycophants, realizes how wrong he was.
I must also point out that defending Pedro in the Zimmer incident does not excuse his being a total asshole the rest of the game.
Greg
I doubt any parent of a 3 year old child would simply say “It was your fault” if they saw a kid old enough to be in the third grade grabbing their 3 year old child by the back of the head and throwing them to the ground.
Sorry, but I’m just not buying your analogy either. Pedro didn’t go after Zimmer like a schoolyard bully. To say he “grabbed” him is a distortion of the facts. Zimmer charged the mound–and went out of his way to do so–and put Pedro in the position of needing to defend himself. Frankly, if Zimmer wasn’t prepared to be tossed to the ground, he shouldn’t have been out there in the first place. And he probably should have expected much worse.
Luke Gofannon.
This whole matter has got Jay acting crazy. You’d think his beloved Yankees were down 3 games to 0 and had never won a series before. I just removed him from my favorite places, because I now realize what a relentless jerk he is.
Jay Caruso
John, you keep missing one crucial point. I am not defending Zimmer’s actions so calling me a ‘sycophant’ doesn’t wash. I could easily say that those on the other side of the argument are just anti-Yankees yahoos (you don’t have to be a Red Sox fan to hate the Yankees), but I’m not. Obviously, we’re just going to have to agree to disagree.
And Luke, why are you, like some other people on my blog making this a personal issue? It’s baseball for crying out loud. Lighten up Francis.
Greg
Luke,
I think you should reconsider. We’re all entitled to be a bit passionate and non-objective about our favorite sports team, even if it’s the Yankees. That’s axiomatic to fandom.
I don’t agree with Jay, but I don’t think he’s gone over the edge, either.
Luke Gofannon
Jay, I think you started with personal attacks. I don’t hate the Yankees, but I wouldn’t mind seeing someone else win the Series, just to shake things up. Joe Torre is my favorite manager, and I’ll never forgive the Braves for dumping him in the 80s. Maybe Martinez is a tool, but in this particular incident, I don’t think he was that out of line. I’ll lighten up, if you will.
Imam Psycho Muhammed
All I got to say about this is: Did you see the size of Zimmer’s helmet? Man, that is one huge melon. That’s cabeza for our spanish speaking friends.