Intentionally throwing at batters is dumb

The dumbest part is that neither of those pitchers meant to hit anyone, last night.

During a recent broadcast, Royals announcer Rex Hudler decided to educate his sophomore co-worker, Jake Eisenberg, on the art of hitting batters. Rex declared to an incredulous Jake that it was important for pitchers to never admit that they hadn’t meant to hit the batter so that the batter would fear them more in their next at-bat.

This is an especially weird position for Rex to take since he once played in Japan where it is traditional for Japanese pitchers to doff their caps and bow in apology when they hit a batter.

Rex’s logic also falls apart if you consider the possible situations. In most situations, there would be no reason to intentionally hit a batter, so the batter is going to realize it was unintentional, and it won’t have the effect Rex is looking for. Also, if your goal is to really make hitters uncomfortable in the box, convincing them all you might hit any of them unintentionally because of your poor command seems like it would be more effective.

In the final scenario, there might be a reason to intentionally hit a batter, and if there is no way to acknowledge it was unintentional or you refuse to do so, you’re far more likely to get one of your teammates hit in retribution than to scare the opposing team.

During Monday night’s game, this conversation became more than just philosophical. Bobby Witt Jr., who has been on an absolute tear, came to the plate on the bottom of the sixth inning having gone 3-for-3 with a home run, a double, and a triple. In other words, he was destroying the Diamondbacks and only needed a single to hit for the Royals’ first cycle in more than 30 years. Instead, he was hit by pitch.

I, like many Royals fans, was initially convinced it was intentional. However, take a look at this replay:

You can see Humberto Castellano immediately crouch over the back of the mound in dismay. He had no intention of hitting Bobby Witt Jr. But no one was looking at him when that happened, so even now, many people assume it was intentional.

If, as in Japanese baseball, he found an opportunity to apologize to Witt it would have been obvious to everyone that he hadn’t done it intentionally and the game could have continued. Instead, during the next inning, the Royals’ John Schreiber beaned Gabriel Moreno. John Schreiber said after the game that he hadn’t meant to hit him, so let’s take a look at his body language after the beaning:

And, sure enough, that looks like a man who also didn’t mean to do that. Adding further evidence, it was a 2-1 pitch and the catcher had set up inside. None of that precluded the fans, the Diamondbacks, and the Royals broadcast booth from all assuming that it had been done intentionally. And, again, because there is no process in American baseball for apologizing to hitters after unintentionally hitting them, that belief will continue forward.

That belief can be dangerous, because the Diamondbacks, who know that hitting Witt wasn’t their intention but believing that the Royals intentionally hit Moreno, could choose to bean Salvador Perez or someone else in tonight’s game. And then the Royals could retaliate. And on and on.

If that happened, players, managers, and coaches would be suspended. A brawl could break out and someone could get hurt. And, of course, hurling 90+ MPH fastballs at people can, and often does, lead to injury all on its own. All of those things could damage the Royals' ability to continue competing for a playoff spot because of a stupid misunderstanding that was exacerbated instead of defused.

Hitting a batter intentionally is one of the ultimate examples of playing stupid games to win stupid prizes. Topped only by the insistence of macho American players and former players insisting that not apologizing is somehow the best path forward. During last night’s broadcast, announcer Ryan LeFebvre discussed with Hudler how the umpires had “done the right thing” by waiting for the Royals to get their vengeance before warning the benches. Of course, that’s as asinine a take as any of this.

If MLB or the umpires really wanted to put an end to intentionally throwing at players, the benches should have been warned when it first became apparent that the Royals were convinced the Diamondbacks had hit him intentionally. Punishment should not have been meted out by the Royals, but by MLB itself in the form of a suspension if they felt it was likely that Castellanos had hit Witt intentionally.

And, of course, the whole thing could be avoided if players simply owned up to their actions. Apologizing when unintentionally hitting batters and accepting the consequences when they didn’t apologize after intentionally hitting batters. After all, anyone can throw a ball at someone’s head, but only a real man can do so without trying to deceive anyone to avoid his due punishment.