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Traina Thoughts: Latest Retaliation for MLB's Unwritten Rules Is Truly Disgusting
1. The stupidity of Major League Baseball "retaliation" bullsh-t never ceases to amaze. It's all just so stunningly dumb and dangerous.
On July 7, Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick took out Angels catcher Jonathon Lucroy with a controversial slide. Actually, it wasn't really a slide. Marisnick just threw his body into Lucroy, who ended up with a nasal fracture that is expected to sideline him for three weeks. MLB suspended Marisnick for two games. No one would argue if you believe Marisnick's slide was dirty. However, he was extremely remorseful and apologized to Lucroy.
But this isn't enough in the world of MLB. For some reason, the Angles HAD to get their revenge, which means throwing a baseball 90-plus miles an hour at Marisnick. How this is just standard practice makes zero sense. What it is, is flat-out barbaric. But this is what they've done in baseball forever. You do something bad, we'll hit you with a baseball. Sure. That sounds reasonable.
So, when the Astros played the Angels on Tuesday night, Anaheim pitcher Noe Ramirez did what he was obligated to do and threw a baseball as hard as he could toward Marisnick's head.
As you see, Marisnick knew it was coming and handled his beaning in a low-key manner and just headed to first base. Nearly injuring Marisnick was pathetic enough, though, for Angels manager Brad Ausmus. He decided to embarrass himself by claiming the pitch was not intentional because Ramirez's first pitch to Marisnick was a strike.
"I know it looks awful but I think the first pitch was a strike,” Ausmus said. “So if he swings at it and hits it, we’re not even talking about it.”
You have to do better than that, Brad.
Bottom line: Fake tough guys will send me a tweet or e-mail after reading this with all the popular buzzwords today: "Snowflake," "Cuck," "Soft," "Beta," etc. But one day, a player is going to die on the field from getting hit in the head with a pitch and then the retaliation crap will stop.
2. A new SI Media Podcast dropped today with John Ourand of Sports Business Journal. We went in-depth discussing the NFL's broadcasting future and talked about what will happen with Sunday Ticket, DirecTV's exclusivity, the impact the Red Zone Channel has had on Sunday Ticket and whether ABC/ESPN will get additional NFL games down the road. We also discussed FOX's new college football pregame show and the ratings for the MLB All-Star Game and the Women's World Cup final.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play.
3. I've actually seen a few people (on Twitter, of course) mock LeBron for his excitment over Taco Tuesday, which makes sense because only Twitter would turn a dad acting like a goofball at dinner with his family into something negative.
4. Traina Thoughts readers, allow me to introduce you to Drake. Drake is a 6-year-old honorary coach for the Kalamazoo Growlers of the Northwoods League. He was also ejected from Saturday's game after arguing with the homeplate umpire.
5. Shaq told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday night that he worked at McDonald's for one day when he was a kid, but the french fries were a problem for him.
6. Colin Kaepernick's Nike commercial has been nominated for an Emmy award in the Outstanding Commercial category. The Emmys take place on Sept. 22.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Some days, you just need a little Larry David in your life.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.
IN CLOSING: Nobody hits better looking home runs than Bryce Harper.
