USA & China Olympic Baseball Game Turns Ugly - Tempers Flare
August 18, 2008
Tempers flared when team USA left-fielder Matt LaPorta, the top minor league prospect for the Cleveland Indians, made a hard play sliding into homeplate and putting China’s catcher, Wang Wei, recently drafted by the Seattle Mariners, out of commission with a knee injury. Wei was replaced by Yang Yang and in the next inning team USA would be involved instigating yet another homeplate collision.
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This time it was Nate Schierholtz sliding hard, and perhaps unnecessary, into Yang during a sacrifice-fly. Yang needed to be restrained against Schierholtz as benches seemed almost ready to clear. China’s coach, Jim Lefebvre, was ejected as he tried to contest the play saying that it was completely unnecessary and unsportsmanlike.
Tense emotions eventually snowballed into a dangerous play in the seventh. Team China’s pitcher Chen Kun started the inning by throwing a ball at Matt LaPorta’s head and was followed by a quick ejection. The coach, pitching coach, and pitcher were all ejected. The US won 9-1.
Here’s what the Detroit Free Press had to say about the incident:
“The United States was playing China in baseball, which was sort of weird because the Chinese do not really play baseball. The Chinese are here because … well, they were already here. The host country automatically qualifies in every sport.”
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9 Responses to “USA & China Olympic Baseball Game Turns Ugly - Tempers Flare”
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As I heard about this unfortunate event that cascaded into ugliness, I started to read and see video about it. What I got was that the US team said they gave a hard lesson to the Chinese about American baseball by violently ramming into the Chinese catcher which led to an ugly situation. Video clips showed the shock in the faces of the Chinese spectators at the violent spectacle. Way to go America! The US Olympic baseball team probably lost all chances for Major League Baseball to emulate their NBA rivals in China. Both MLB and the NFL are green with envy on how the NBA has been able to capture the Chinese market. Since many in the US Olympic baseball team comprises of minor league players hoping to make it to the majors… nice example of sportsmanship of the future generation of MLB players. For a generally non-violent sport, now I understand why baseball players turn out to be the most hated by the general public in professional sports. MLB is trying to push baseball into China. If it fails, then they’ll know why.
The physical play at homeplate is part of the game. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Apparently everyone in baseball knows the catcher shouldn’t block the plate if he doesn’t want a collision except Jim LeFebvre. I ran over a catcher in a PE class in junior college for blocking the plate. Is the runner supposed to slow down and get tagged out? Catchers that don’t want to get run over stay in front of the plate or behind the plate.
Dear Yang,
Two words!! “SAFE!!!!!”, and “AFLAC!!!”
Your pal,
Yogi
The author is clearly ignorant of baseball being played at anything over a coach-pitch level. The runner wants to score. The catcher wants to stop him. The catcher blocks the plate. The runner tries to get to the plate. By the basic law which says that two bodies of matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time, a collision occurs. Welcome to sports.
And so many sports writers have been writing articles complaining why Chinese fans adore Kobe Bryant over someone like Brad Pitt. Translation: They don’t understand why a black sports star is more popular than a white celebrity. Now you know why.
What the U.S. players did, while violent, falls within the rules and customs of the game.. Note, also, that the catcher is far from defenseless in that situation; he is covered with padding and can fully defend himself. In fact he is in a defensive posture, and his primary goal is to stop the runner from reaching the plate.
In contrast, throwing at a batter’s head is violent, potentially lethal, and way outside the bounds of the rules or custom of the game. The batter is in no position to defend himself against a speeding projectile.
If the base runner was capable of reaching 70mph on his way to the plate, maybe there would be an argument. But in that case, the rules of the game would be different.
Neither the author of the article or Jammer can deal with the facts, and therefore they try to confuse the issue or change the subject.
The real fault lies with the Chinese government in fielding a team that has no more business being on a baseball field without understanding the rules than an overweight old man does flipping around on a balance beam. It’s no surprise that they would get hurt. The only real surprise is that anyone is surprised by it.
Learn the rules. Play ball.
The article fails to mention that prior to the first slide at home, Chinese pitchers hit 5 batters. If your team’s pitchers hit that many batters you should expect (and deserve) payback. That’s how the game has been played for 100 years.
Being an asian, I have to say, this article is an EMBARASSMENT in it’s one-sidedness. NOT ONCE in this article does it mention the fact that the Chinese team hit the Americans FIVE times prior to the first slide harshly portrayed by this so-called writer. I wonder if this writer was trained to hide the truth and shift blame in Red China or just have a racist approach?