|
looks like i missed a fun game tonight.
Braves starter Horacio Ramirez's first pitch to Erstad, thrown amid a loud chorus of Turner Field jeers, sailed behind Erstad's back, setting off another intense chain of events.
First, home-plate umpire Lance Barksdale promptly warned both benches, inciting an extended argument from Angels manager Mike Scioscia.
"There should have been no warning," Scioscia said. "He should have been ejected from the game. There was no doubt about the intent of that pitch. I don't know what you could have been looking at to miss the intent of that pitch."
*Quotes*
Braves manager Bobby Cox said he didn't think it was a dirty play, though he felt Erstad could have avoided the collision and still scored.
``I respect someone who plays hard,'' said Braves outfielder Brian Jordan, also a former football player. ``But to go that high, that's a different story to me. That's a cheap shot.''
``When you go high in the face, your intent is not to knock the ball out,'' Jordan said. ``Your intent is to seriously hurt somebody. You're talking about a potentially career-ending neck injury. I've run over a couple of catchers in my time, but I never went that high on one. You go for his glove.''
After an ESPN analyst broke down the play, pitcher Roman Colon walked away shaking his head.
``He could have gone around him,'' Colon said
``I play to win,'' Erstad said. ``There is absolutely zero intent to injure anybody. That's not me. I'm just glad Johnny's OK. That's the most important thing.''
``I've watched it so many times and I've rerun it in my head,'' Erstad said. ``I just made a decision. It's instinct. As I round third, I see that the cutoff guy has the ball, so I look at home and the first thing I see is Johnny's legs. And I see the plate between his legs. In your mind you see that and you think, I just want to meet him.''
__________________
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-Darth Vader
|