LaPorta beaned in USA-China game
LaPorta was hit IN THE HEAD by a pitch in the top of the 7th inning of the 9-1 US win over China today. He seems like he is OK and was able to leave the field under his own power. The beaning was in retaliation for a home plate collision that he had with the Chinese catcher that knocked the catcher out of the game with a knee injury. LaPorta was one of five US players to be hit by a pitch.
The lone Chinese run in the game came on a solo HR where the hitter kept his right arm raised in the air the entire time he circled the bases.
Lefebvre really put together a class act organization over there. Nice job.
UPDATE: Hoynes is reporting that LaPorta suffered a concussion but apparently nothing more serious, based on a CAT scan and other tests. (Hat-tip to palcal.) It's not clear if he'll play again in these Olympics, but without him, Team USA wold be down to just one bench player. My guess is that he'll sit out the next game but will play in the medal round if we advance.
I also cleaned up the wording to clarify that China did not "bean" five different players, since "bean" means "hit in the head." [Jay]
over 3 years ago
KevinV
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What a classless team. Obviously they were completely unaware that the appropriate response would have been to taunt LaPorta and then at some point unexpectedly flip over him on a basepath.
Amateurs/communists…
Tanaka is not impressed with China. No Mah-boes.
by KevinV on Aug 18, 2008 3:17 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Even the Cubans wouldn’t do this shit.
If you need me, I'll be senselessly rooting for Sizemore 40/40 for the remainder of 2008.
Retaliating by throwing at a player’s back, hip, leg, etc. = could be justified depending on the cicusmtance.
Retaliating by throwing at a player’s head = not justifiable in every circumstance.
Not that it matters that much, but the pitcher should be suspended for the rest of the tournament.
I cant think of a scenario where throwing at a player’s head could be justified at all. You could literally kill someone like that. I love retaliation, but you really have to keep it below the shoulders.
No one that is as important as LaPorta is to this organization should even be allowed to participate in something as unnecessary and risky as the Olympics. At very least, he has now missed a month of playing time in the minors under the development of the Indians’ staff, been exposed to (and sustained) a serious injury and likely now won’t be available for even a brief look in the majors in September. This should also raise a HUGE red flag for any player under consideration to participate in the World Baseball Classic. No Indians player on the 40-man roster should be allowed to play in that nonsense either.
by Tribe Fan Matt on Aug 18, 2008 3:30 PM EDT up reply actions
You’re right. Injuries don’t happen in AA or AAA. . .
The best thing probably is to hit [Grady] 2nd -- Jay
by Buckeye Brad on Aug 18, 2008 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions
The point is not that he was exposed to the risk of injury, but that he has been injured. LaPorta was assuredly injured, with 100% certainty, in China. His chances in Akron would have been better. I wouldn’t let players play in WBC or Olympics, period. I wouldn’t let them out of my sight.
What positive or constructive results could one hope from performing in one of these events? Some sort of respect for one’s homeland, national pride, being a hero for your peeps. Maybe that’s it. Only bad things can come from such events. Do they help a player’s game? The WBC has rules about the number of pitches you can make a player throw, so maybe that doesn’t harm pitchers too much.
I think you’re ignoring the fact that these guys get to be, uh, olympians. Get to go live in the olympic village for two weeks surrounded by thousands of the World’s best athletes. I think some people might like that. I mean, if you’re in to that kind of thing. There’s a certain point where, by not allowing your players to participate, management is just be a-holes.
Sorry. I don’t see the big deal in being an Olympic baseball athlete. Archery, kayaking, whatever. Even boxing, I can see them wanting to participate. But baseball has nothing to do with Olympics. Does soccer? Does American football? It’s joining in a bunch of nonsense. The Olympics degrade athletics. And I’m not into the supposed ABC Sports feel-good brotherly love of the Olympic Villages.
Baseball is the best sport in the world, in my opinion. I will gladly watch Muskingum College play a game in a cold drizzle. I will gladly watch the Dutch national team play the Cubans. But I’m not interested in seeing big-leaguers or potential big-leaguers play in some silly tournament.
For what it’s worth, I love the Olympic soccer tournament, and I feel like using only players under the age of 23 is a reasonably elegant solution. There was actually a significant dispute this summer about the availability of a few star players like Lionel Messi whose clubs tried to bar them from participating in the Olympics. FIFA basically stepped in and decreed that the clubs had to let their players go.
I guess the difference is that there’s a tradition of international competition in soccer. I hope someday baseball can claim a similar tradition, and I for one think the WBC is a wonderful thing. But the Olympics, during the MLB season… it’s just not going to work.
but the guys aren’t just playing baseball. like I said, they’re living in the olympic village, going to other events, walking in the opening ceremonies…all of that is something these guys will never have the chance to do again.
Opening ceremonies? I can’t imagine something more asinine. These guys will never have a chance again to play ball in Huntsville, Alabama and Mahoning Valley, either. As I said above, it’s okay if you’re a sharpshooter or long-jumper, but if you’re preparing to be a professional athlete, you should stay home and do your work.
The fact is that neither one of us can presume to tell the athletes whether or not they should want to play in the Olympics. If they do, which they must, they have their reasons.
Steel Nick
I don’t get this sentence:
“If they do, which they must, they have their reasons.”
Are you saying the must want to play—that it’s their duty or national obligation? Or that it is simply apparent that they want to because they are there? What if they don’t want to play but feel coerced to do so?
I’m not a general manager, thankfully, but if I were I would go the Lionel Messi route mentioned by still ill above.
I am letting my biases get in the way. But do you really believe the LeBron booshwah? That’s just prepackaged journalistic pablum, in my mind. You can almost hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” coming up in the background.
Obviously it would be inappropriate in a free society to prohibit people from participating. But I would propose an alternative: why not send AAAA players? Let Ernie Young play, and Tike Redman and Rob Macowiak.
Speaking of management being a-holes. Scott Richmond was supposed to be one of Canada’s ace pitchers for the Olympics, but was called up to the Jays just before the games. During the games, he was sent down again. Stubby Clapp was not happy about this.
Andy Marte is free at last! Now, if only he could hit a breaking ball...
by woodsmeister on Aug 19, 2008 10:39 AM EDT up reply actions
In the Olympics, like every sport, ESPECIALLY baseball, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Why do we get excited about some guy who can throw a ball really hard or some guy who can hit a ball really far? Because this is sports. It’s why we play the. If you’re trying to break it down by its nuts and bolts then you just won’t get “it”.
Or in simplier terms
by world dictator on Aug 18, 2008 10:45 PM EDT up reply actions
The point is not that he was exposed to the risk of injury, but that he has been injured … I wouldn’t let players play in WBC or Olympics, period.
Well, again, the WBC is different because it takes place when a player wouldn’t already be playing.
I guess I’m just wondering how Matt LaPorta getting hurt in the Olympics makes it more likely that future ballplayers will get hurt in the Olympics as opposed to the minors.
I think no prospect should ever play until they’re ready to play in the majors. That’s just me.
Steel Nick
Good point about the WBC.
I wouldn’t take the chance of a big league player being injured playing in a tournament against significantly inferior talent. And for such limited potential gain.
Should you let prospects do wheelies on their motorcycles? Play pickup basketball games around water sprinklers? Sky-dive?
We just had a pitching prospect suffer what we thought to be a career-ending injury while pitching. Perhaps we shouldn’t let these guys play baseball, either. Lets treat them the way many modern parents treat their toddlers – keep them in an injury-proofed room sealed by gates, allowing them to go outside only under close supervision. LaPorta was injured, so all youcan say with certainty is that 100% of the players injured in the Olympics are injured. You can’t say he wouldn’t have been injured in Akron; the brawl earlier in the year in the minors makes the China-US game pale in comparison.
You may think the Olympics are stupid and pointless, but the players clearly disagree. Kobe and LeBron certainly don’t need to pad their resumes in Beijing. Sometimes you have to let these kids do things they want to do, even if there is some degree of risk.
I do think the Olympics are stupid. I will concede they have a purpose for amateur athletics. I would imagine LeBron and Kobe didn’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling about playing in the Olympics. It was more likely they saw it as a way to hang out with their cohorts, a no-heavy-lifting way to spend the summer. Those guys would be playing ball wherever they were—and they’re on vacation, technically.
LaPorta should have been playing ball in Altoona or New Britain, or riding on a bus to Erie. Let him get beaned in a AA game, not playing against a bunch of goofballs in superhero suits.
Does Charles Barkley talk about winning a gold medal in basketball, or does he talk about the playoffs with the Sixers?
You’re letting your inherent biases (the Olympics are stupid) color your judgment. You can imagine that LeBron doesn’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling about playing for Team USA, but you’d be wrong.
“This means more than sitting at home and getting two more months of rest,” James said. “It means more to me than playing for my respective team because I’m not just playing for a community, I’m not just playing for Cleveland, Akron or the state of Ohio, I’m playing for every state in America.Does LaPorta feel the same way? probably, or he wouldn’t be there. These are baseball players, not serfs, and forbidding them from playing in the Olympics is not going to make this an attractive place to play. A couple of weeks in Beijing isn’t going to irreparably damage LaPorta’s development.”We grew up thinking about the NBA title, but being an Olympian is something I grew up never thinking about. That’s why at the beginning I never knew what it meant, but now I do. I think an Olympic title and an NBA title are equivalent to each other. They’re both great."
I am letting my biases get in the way. But do you really believe the LeBron booshwah? That’s just prepackaged journalistic pablum, in my mind. You can almost hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” coming up in the background.
Obviously it would be inappropriate in a free society to prohibit people from participating. But I would propose an alternative: why not send AAAA players? Let Ernie Young play, and Tike Redman and Rob Macowiak.
This should also raise a HUGE red flag…
Like this one?:
by Brick. on Aug 18, 2008 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions 5 recs
I rec’ed it, but I think that isn’t enough. Seriously – nice one.
You have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person
by jakesinger777 on Aug 20, 2008 12:45 AM EDT up reply actions
FIRE CHINA
Travis Hafner is overrated. Clarity is underrated. David Dellucci is David Dellucci.
by westbrook on Aug 18, 2008 2:53 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
this makes me want to shout slurs at the next unsuspecting, innocent Chinaman I encounter. it would be ironic if i didn’t live so close to CWRU’s campus.
I guess a good, ole fashioned fist-shaking will have to do.
You know Selig? Ombudsman.
That’s actually a decent Michael Jackson impression.
by KevinV on Aug 18, 2008 5:46 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature.
--
In Cliff we trust.
by vbc3 on Aug 19, 2008 1:11 AM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
Of all of the supposed slurs out there, the offense taken at this one has always seemed the most puzzling to me. Englishman or Frenchman are fine to use. Why isn’t Chinaman?
Stupid question, but what is the equivalent of “American” and “Canadian” for someone from China? Chinese, even though it sounds awkward?
Memphomaniac.
"A good body with a dull brain is as cheap as life itself."
by Fiddlesticks on Aug 21, 2008 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions
the worst four words in baseball
beaned in the head
by ken from alexandria on Aug 18, 2008 4:53 PM EDT reply actions
Lefebvre really put together a class act organization over there. Nice job.
No kidding. I didn’t see the beaning, but the fact that China ended up hitting six batters in that game leads me to believe it wasn’t an “accident.” If this were a major league game and six batters got hit, there would have been a pretty nasty brawl at some point. At least the US team showed restraint and didn’t get tossed from the tournament.
Not that it will impact the standings because China’s team is irrelevant, but how many players/coaches got disciplined by the IOC for this crap?
I went through the nbc.com broadcast of the game. The trouble all starts sometime after the 2:06 mark, when LaPorta slides hard (dives, more like it) into home Pete Rose style with the catcher half-blocking the plate. He looks out to me but is ruled safe, although that’s not the point I guess. There was a bit of an argument when Lefebvre comes out to argue. It’s nice because there are no commentators so you can hear a good portion of it. There’s a lengthy delay as the catcher has to be removed.
Nate Schierholtz (Giants, yes?) gets hit in the back and when he comes around to score goes elbow-first into the new catcher. It’s pretty intentional. I guess he was the third or fourth hit batter for Team USA. More arguing. A lot of swear words.
Fast forward to the 7th and the beaning comes on an 0-2 count. More arguing. LaPorta helped off the field. Has that lost little boy look on his face. The umpire doesn’t eject the Chinese pitcher or manager (which I’m not sure was even still Lefebvre at that point) until the USA manager complains and the other umpires gather around.
Also! What’s missed in all this is that Koplove struck out the side in the top half of the beaning inning.
Steel Nick
FWIW, most of this can be seen in the highlights provided in Kevin’s original link.
But not Yang (backup catcher) hitting a home run to make it 9-1 and raising his arm. That’s a big ol’ a-hole move right there. I mean wow. In the ninth inning of a 9-0 game. Keeps his fist raised the entire trot, pumps it a little after rounding third, and stomps emphatically at home plate.
Right or wrong, he would have a serious baseball-sized bruise someone in his ribs the next game if this was MLB.
Steel Nick
They play the game differently in China. Can’t wait for Chinese players in the bigs, though. Maybe the Indians can get a Chinese third baseman.
They play the game differently in China.
How so? I’ll admit I’m not familiar, only that it’s a very short history compared with other baseball cultures. This is acceptable?
Steel Nick
When Lefebvre got over there, he described their offensive strategy as “bunt for a hit, bunt the runner to second, bunt the runner to third, hope for a passed ball.” Apparently, he’s added “hit the batter in the head” and “hit a meaningless home run, then taunt the team that is (still) kicking your butt.” That latter strategy is, alas, well-represented on this side of the world, too.
I’ve never seen anything like what Yang did yesterday. That doesn’t fly here, or anywhere else.
Someone pointed out elsewhere that this was the first home run hit by the Chinese team ever. That’s still a god-awful excuse.
Steel Nick
“Hey, look! The shooting star of my pseudo-fame!”
by fleerdon on Aug 19, 2008 12:49 AM EDT up reply actions
LOOK! It’s the word ‘Jay’.
Travis Hafner is overrated. Clarity is underrated. David Dellucci is David Dellucci.
by westbrook on Aug 19, 2008 2:16 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Kevin V:
低级蠢货棒球运动员。 他在排粪以后执行这个同样表示
Babelfish:
Preliminary idiot baseball player. He is defecating later carries out this similar expression.
Better could it not have been, myself having it bespake.
"A good body with a dull brain is as cheap as life itself."
by Fiddlesticks on Aug 19, 2008 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
It is true that if this was the MLB or any sort of organized baseball here in the States he would definitely be facing retaliation later on and would probably learn not to celebrate in an obnoxious manner such as that. However, from his point of view it was big moment for his team/country for the first time on a big stage. On top of that I’m sure he was pretty aggravated because of that hit he took earlier. I’m not saying that its right and hopefully Lefebvre sat him down afterward, but I see where it was coming from.
Wedge: [letting go of Casey's hand] I'll never let go, Casey. I promise.
I hear you, but I can’t agree. Maybe a fist pump. Maybe raising your hand. Both would be jerk moves but understandable. His total reaction is just a little dumbfounding.
Steel Nick
I totally agree. It was out of control there is no denying that. It is out of the range of acceptable behavior for someone who hit a meaningless home run but who knows how much they know about the intricacies of the game? Clearly the understanding of baseball in China has a long, long way to go.
Actually what I think happened was the only MLB highlights that made it to China was that of the Yankees and the greatest pitcher in the universe: Justin Chamberlain and he was trying to be better than his idol.
Wedge: [letting go of Casey's hand] I'll never let go, Casey. I promise.
I don’t know if you guys realize, but Team China is only competing in this sport because they get an automatic berth as the host country. There is no way in hell they ever would have qualified. This is not unlike having the Kinston Indians compete for the American League pennant.
I’d say the K-Tribe has more chance of beating the Rays than Team China has of beating Cuba. To the extent that anyone thought they had a chance to do anything, it was an assumption if that Asians can play baseball well (Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea) and Communists can play baseball well (Cuba), then Asian Communists should be able to play doubly well.
James Fallows of the Atlantic was at the ballgame and wrote this description. He says that the pitch that hit LaPorta was traveling 68 MPH. I guess it could have been worse.
FYI, the catcher, Wang Wei, that LaPorta took out suffered a torn ACL. See here for the complete article.
I’m going to assume that there is a letsgodragons.com site out there that Chinese national team fans are fuming about just as we are about LaPorta.
Wedge: [letting go of Casey's hand] I'll never let go, Casey. I promise.
Good thing LGT is probably blocked in China.
by jhon on Aug 19, 2008 4:02 PM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
He’s a prospect in the Mariners organization, so in theory one needn’t go all the way to Beijing. The fellas at Lookout Landing seem to obsess less about catchers with 9 AB in the Cal League than we do, however.
I think they understand that if anyone in their system shines bright enough, the FO will simply trade them away or misuse them horribly.
Steel Nick
by nickjs21 on Aug 19, 2008 5:21 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
LaPorta likely to play in semifinal against Cuba Friday:
Jayson Nix (left eye) and Matt LaPorta (mild concussion) each took batting practice and looked good. Both probably will be in the lineup against Cuba. That would be especially noteworthy for Nix, who had homered in the eighth inning to send the Cuba game into extra innings, was struck on the face while bunting against Pedro Luis Lazo in the 11th and was hospitalized and thought to be out for the tournament. He has steadily progressed, and could be in position for a dramatic rematch on Friday.
LaPorta, on the other hand, struck out four times in four plate appearances in the Cuba game, setting up a somewhat-less-than-dramatic rematch on Friday.
"A good body with a dull brain is as cheap as life itself."
by Fiddlesticks on Aug 20, 2008 7:09 PM EDT up reply actions
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