Richie Sexson, the main instigator of Thursday evening's brawl at Safeco Field, quietly contemplates where his Major League career went so horribly wrong. - fall-line/Flickr.com
On Richie Sexson, Kason Gabbard, And Outright Idiocy
A few brief bullet points:
● I try very, very hard to steer clear of personal attacks directed towards anybody associated with the great game of baseball. I really do. But I’m going to have to make a special exception in this case.
Richie Sexson is a gutless, spineless piece of trash.
Because I am so incensed, I’ll allow a semi-neutral third party - namely, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram - to describe what transpired with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning of Thursday evening’s game at Safeco Field:
Richie Sexson has been ejected after charging Rangers pitcher Kason Gabbard in the fourth inning. The odd thing? Sexson wasn’t even hit by a pitch. He charged after Gabbard uncorked a fastball that sailed high but didn’t appear close to hitting Sexson.
Gabbard had to leave the game with an undisclosed injury two batters after the melee. He had come off the disabled list today after suffering a back injury last month.
Both benches and bullpens cleared. The most animated player beside Sexson was Mariners starter Felix Hernandez, who had plunked two Rangers. One was Ian Kinsler in the fourth. The second baseman spun and looked toward Hernandez before taking a slow walk to first base.
Hernandez also hit catcher Gerald Laird in the second inning, and Laird was also an active combatant during the melee. At one point he was separated from the fracas by Milton Bradley, who picked up Laird, carried him 10 feet, and pushed him in the chest to calm him down.
You can only imagine the incredulous look of disbelief that crossed my face when television replays conclusively showed that the pitch - an 89 MPH fastball from Gabbard - was a good 12 to 14 inches away from hitting Sexson.
It. Wasn’t. Even. Close. I can’t possibly emphasize this enough.
And Richie, in all his infinite wisdom, decided to bull-rush the mound, tossing his helmet at full force into Gabbard’s back (the root cause of his two-plus week stint on the 15-day disabled list) and tackling him to the ground, contorting Kason’s body into an unnatural shape as Sexson’s 6′ 8″, 240-pound frame landed upon him.
Credit catcher Gerald Laird for diving atop Sexson so quickly, thereby breaking up the immediate melee. When taking into account the vast discrepancy in size between the two combatants, Gabbard could have very easily re-injured himself - or at the very least, sustained an injury more serious than the initial “bruised legs” diagnosis that necessitated his untimely departure from the game.
● Felix Hernandez is only marginally less idiotic than Sexson. His animated attempts to join the fray (which were impeded by his catcher, Kenji Johjima, former teammate Eddie Guardado, and an unidentified Mariners coach) would have been far more credible if he hadn’t already drilled a pair of Rangers in the preceding four innings.
Perhaps neither of those plunkings was intentional, but it nonetheless goes without saying that Hernandez was far from being in any sort of position to complain about Gabbard’s purported “brushback” pitch.
● There was a time when Milton Bradley would have been at the center of that conflict, swinging his fists wildly and stirring up additional chaos where none was needed.
Milton Bradley has matured. A lot.
● Tom Grieve, as quoted by Rangerfans.com’s Joe Siegler, is absolute gold - as usual:
“That is a gutless, 6-foot-7, .200-hitting, formerly good player. What a joke!”
[…]
“If he doesn’t get suspended for a week for that gutless move, I’ll be completely shocked. Number one, for charging the mound on a pitch that wasn’t even close, and then getting twenty feet away and throwing a helmet at him like a girl. What a joke.”
● Believe my account of the incident is full of half-truths and inaccuracies? Then decide for yourself:
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19 Responses to “On Richie Sexson, Kason Gabbard, And Outright Idiocy”
May 8th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
“I try very, very hard to steer clear of personal attacks directed towards anybody associated with the great game of baseball”
Obviously not, try harder fanboy. 89 mph…12 inches from my face…i’d charge Gabbard too. What a coward…he was in the fetal position before Sexson even got to the mound.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Stephan… Gabbard was in a fetal position because that gutless douche Sexson threw his helmet at him. Maybe you Mariner fans (and I assume you are one, based on your comment) forget about that part?
That pitch was high and in the middle of the plate. It came no where close to your boy Sexson, unless he planned on leaning his oversized head out in front of Gerald Laird. As is mentioned above, it was good ‘ol Queen Felix who plunked two RANGERS prior to all this… Gabbard had done nothing to warrant an attack - he just overthrew that pitch. Sexson obviously came to the plate looking for a fight, and he picked a lousy excuse to start one.
Furthermore, once he did start one, he proceeded to act like a spineless peice of trash by using his helmet as a weapon to subdue Gabbard before he tackled him.
Richie Sexson is a disgrace to the game of baseball, and if you where smart, you’d realize he’s a disgrace to the Seattle Mariners. If you guys had any sense of class or pride in your organization, you wouldn’t waste your energy trying to defend him.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Obviously Stephan knows little about the way the great game is played. The pitch in question was a straight fastball that was high, but definitely not tight. 12 inches away? The only coward here is baby Sexson who takes out his personal frustration for sucking so badly on a pitcher who certainly didn’t deserve to get drilled by a batting helmet.
It’s ridiculous to attack the mound, throw your helmet at the pitcher, and tackle the guy for a pitch like that. The only fanboy here is Stephan who seems to need to defend Sexson merely because he’s a fan of the Mariners. Any baseball person knows that Sexson effed up there, and that’s not the way you play the game.
The weird thing is that with Padilla’s antics the past couple of years, I sort of expected this kind of bad blood to happen with his instigation - but Padilla has been the true professional this season.
Shame on you, Richie Sexson. I hope you get a 20 game suspension and then DFA’ed.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Stefan, don’t you have a tree to go and hug, or a spotted owl to save, or a hard time deciding which one of the 5000 Starbucks to go to that’s within walking distance?
Or better yet, don’t you have an Anarchist pep rally to go to?
That was one of the more cowardly things I’ve ever seen in a baseball game….no wonder you liked it Stefan……..
May 9th, 2008 at 8:03 am
It’s a GOOD thing Kason immediately went in a fetal position. Not only does he protect himself from injury, by not fighting back, he ensures he won’t be suspended.
Stefan, Kason was SMART. Sexson was not.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Just a question:
I’m looking at the footage now. Betancourt runs out of the on-deck circle, takes off his helmet and runs into the fray.
My question… did it look like Betancourt had the intention of throwing his helmet in the fight or not?
Either way, Sexson’s gone for a good amount of games. 10? 15? 20?
May 9th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I think Joey has it right. The pitch wasn’t really anywhere near hitting Sexson, and if it had been lower, it might have been a strike. Sexson was anticipating something happening after Hernandez hit Kinsler, and overreacted. He apparently said something to the effect that missing the game the night before to be with his child who is in the hospital had something to do with it.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Sexson was so in the wrong on that. The pitch was not even close. The above posters are right on about him being a coward.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Sexson is a jerk. When he was in Cleveland he blamed the fans when he got in a batting slump. He used to bleach his hair gold and got the nick name big bird. It should have been big idiot….
May 9th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Sorry my thoughts didn’t meet your strict guidelines of approval, Stefan. I call ‘em like I see ‘em.
Brent, went back and watched Betancourt - he took off his helmet, but held it in both hands and never went to raise it. Not exactly sure what he was aiming for there, but I don’t believe he was going to pull a Sexson.
My guess? Seven-game suspension, which is appealed by the MLBPA and reduced to four-ish games. Suspensions in Major League Baseball are an absolute punchline.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:08 am
This is a pretty remarkable situation. Sexson’s got half a foot on Gabbard and basically used his helmet as a weapon. I don’t want to compare this to the Juan Marichal incident, but as soon as people start using baseball equipment as a weapon, things become extremely hazy.
Say what you like about retaliation, or whatever Sexson’s motive may have been. The fact remains that Richie Sexson is a professional, and in front of thousands of baseball fans, including many children, he viciously attacked a player on the other team for what anyone can see from the replay was not a threatening pitch.
I certainly hope that MLB responds accordingly.
May 9th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Stefan is a an idiot. He has never played ball. If the pitcher wanted to hit the idiot he would have. Who couldn’t hit a target that big?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Six games for Sexson.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Sexson got what he deserved which is a suspension. He should have known better. He did not even get hit.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Going to guess his suspension will be cut to four games on appeal. Wonder if this will be ironed out before the Seattle series that begins on Monday?
May 10th, 2008 at 2:58 am
[…] means I’m stupid, or WordPress sucks). For now, you can see the video featuring Grieve here - just don’t tell Bud Selig. Elsewhere is this redlasso video, from Yahoo baseball blog […]
May 10th, 2008 at 10:03 am
obviously I don’t condone that type of behavior, as I thought Sexon’s charge way way unnecessary. But remember, he does have his son in the hospital, and has been dealing with a great amount of anger and stress. I think he took out all his frustration on that one play
May 10th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
You guys are all missing the key point of this whole debacle. We don’t know what had been said between the Seattle and Texas players prior to this fight. Sure, the pitch wasn’t that close to Sexon’s face but if that pitcher had been running his mouth and made it clear he might be throwing at Sexon, it doesn’t really matter how close it was. Sexon simply took it he was getting thrown at, and his head at that. We don’t know for sure what was said, but it was pretty obvious that the second man Felix hit was mouthing off to him after the unintentional plunking.
One last point, you guys keep saying it was simply a high pitch that was only marginally close to Sexson’s face but lets remember, Sexson isn’t some 5′7 shortstop, the guy is 6′8. That takes a pretty high pitch to come close to his face.
May 11th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Craig—You said, “I don’t want to compare this to the Juan Marichal incident . . . ” Say I—There is no comparison: You might remember that the whole thing was kicked off when Dodger catcher John Roseboro, having decided Sandy Koufax hadn’t done quite enough to send Marichal a message about earlier brushbacks (against Maury Wills and Ron Fairly; never mind that Koufax, in turn, had brushed back Willie Mays and, during the at-bat in question, had brushed Marichal back), decided to drop a Koufax service, let the ball roll a bit behind the plate, and then throw the ball back to Koufax on a route about an inch from Marichal’s ear—when Marichal was still standing in the batter’s box facing the field and not seeing what Roseboro was doing until the return throw shot right past the side of his head.
That was when the usually amiable Marichal exploded into a screaming fit and the usually amiable Roseboro yanked off his mask and (watch the films very carefully) looked as though he were charging Marichal, holding his mask in such a position as might have cause a man to think he was about two seconds from getting poleaxed himself.
Richie Sexson behaved like a first class ass, but Kason Gabbard’s riser was closer to Sexson’s head (that’s a joke, son, you could have thrown three baseballs between the location of the pitch and the presence of Sexson’s head) than Sexson’s behaviour was to the Marichal incident.
—Jeff
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