MLB Should Drop Hammer on Head Hunting, Starting with Pirates

by Julian Spivey
One of the biggest issues in Major League Baseball right now is pitchers head hunting against batters for celebrating home runs. The biggest example of this this season has been the ongoing battle between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds, two teams fighting over last place in the National League Central Division.
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In the early part of the season Reds infielder/outfielder Derek Dietrich was hitting the Pirates like he was a descendant of Babe Ruth and occasionally pimped the blast that drew the ire of the Pittsburgh team.

In April Pirates pitcher Chris Archer threw a ball behind Dietrich’s back, which led to a bruhaha in which Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig attempted to take on the entire Pirates ballclub in one of the best images of the entire MLB season.

Reds outfielder Yasiel Puig takes on entire Pirates team in brawl on April 7.

Almost four months later it seems the Pirates are still upset with Dietrich as reliever Keone Kela opted to throw a pitch directly over Dietrich’s head in the seventh inning of Tuesday (July 30) game while up 8-2. The incident led to an argument between Kela and Reds all star first baseman Joey Votto between innings.

In the ninth inning with the Pirates leading 11-3 Reds reliever Amir Garrett was on the mound with the Pirates dugout apparently jawing at him (at least that’s what seemed to be happening) and Garrett took off from the mound in a sprint toward the Pirates dugout to take on the entire team, just as Puig had done months earlier leading to yet another one of the best images of the season. 

Reds reliever Amir Garrett takes on entire Pirates team in brawl on July 30.

This, of course, led to a multi-minute incident that saw both teams going at it in front of the Pirates dugout and Reds manager David Bell, who had been ejected from the game the inning before for arguing balls and strikes, sprinting on the field from inside the locker room to take on the Pirates, with Pirates manager Clint Hurdle seemingly being his target. The most interesting aspect of the entire melee was the major involvement of Puig, who had actually been traded to the Cleveland Indians less than an hour prior to the brawl but was (unusually) never removed from the ballgame. He’ll certainly be serving a suspension as one of his first acts as a member of the Indians.
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Puig, Garrett and Bell are all going to receive suspensions and it wouldn’t be surprising for all three to be rather lengthy. But, make no mistake this brawl doesn’t happen at all if the Pirates organization could have just let Dietrich’s homer celebration from more than a quarter of a year ago go. The brawl doesn’t happen if Kela doesn’t throw the ball toward Dietrich’s head – and make no mistake it was intentional. Kela admitted such after the game to the press: “I’m going to tell you the truth. The reason I went up and in was strictly, one, to show my intent and to pretty much let Dietrich know that I didn’t necessarily agree with the way things went down.”

It’s time that Major League Baseball step in and say head hunting is done. There’s no more place for it within the game. Players policing themselves on the field has always been part of baseball and I’ve always been completely fine with that. I don’t think the bean ball is something that should be completely taken out of the game – although I’m kind of done with it being used against celebrations. But, going at someone’s head whether you’re actually attempting to hit the batter or just buzz him has to be dealt with harshly. Pitchers are throwing harder than they ever have in the history of the game and we’re playing around with people’s lives here. Any time a pitcher intentionally throws the ball near a batter head it should be a minimum of a double digit game suspension and baseball should start right now with Kela. I also believe MLB should hand down a lengthy suspension to Pirates manager Clint Hurdle, as many times these bean ball pitches are directed by the manager himself. Baseball can and should take a stand right now and let the Pirates know their bad blood with Dietrich and the Reds is over and show any team in the future that if you want to go near someone’s head with a pitch there’s going to be consequences.