The Kansas City Royals were perceived as a likable bunch on their way to winning the pennant last season. This year, it’s a different story.
Believe it or not, the Royals were involved in yet another bench-clearing incident Thursday. Apparently they didn’t get enough over the weekend when they squared off with the Oakland Athletics, which followed up an early-season skirmish with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
On Thursday night, it was the Chicago White Sox who came to blows with the Royals, thanks in large part to Kansas City starter Yordano Ventura. In an incident filled with idiots, Ventura was the ring leader after his new signature move.
Before diving into what happened Thursday night, let’s revisit that dust-up with the Angels. Ventura was in the middle of that scuffle because, get this, he apparently took exception to Mike Trout hitting a ball to close to his head.
What. An. Idiot.
It’s obviously beyond ridiculous to think a hitter could control where he’s going to hit the ball. Second, the list of guys someone like Ventura should be picking a fight with should be very small and it probably shouldn’t include a guy like Trout, who’s built like a brick … um, house.
OK, so back to Thursday night. This whole debacle might not have been started by Ventura, but it surely was escalated by the hot-headed flame-thrower. Here’s video of the incident in full. We’ll break it down much deeper below.
[mlbvideo id=”86661883″ width=”640″ height=”360″ /]
What is Ventura’s deal with getting all bent out of shape about guys hitting the ball back at him? A rational person might say it’s part of the game, but here we are again. If Ventura wants guys to stop hitting balls back at him, maybe he should stop leaving fastballs middle-middle.
Just a thought.
Also, at some point, Royals catcher Salvador Perez has to get tired of stepping in front of (insert ticked off baseball player here) to make sure Ventura isn’t ripped from limb to limb.
Anyway, that’s really where Ventura’s fault ends in this entire thing. He blew the whole thing up and since he’s got a history of being the one to spark these things, he’s again the leader of the idiots. However, there’s plenty of other blame to go around.
Jeff Samardzija
Admittedly, it’s tough to criticize someone for standing up for their teammate. So if Samardzija truly felt he was trying to be a good teammate by sticking his nose in this thing, then whatever. But even so, it’s probably not the greatest thing in the world for your high-priced pitcher to be in the middle of a brawl.
Especially when he leaves himself this susceptible to being clocked in the kisser.
That’s Samardizija in black about to get his block knocked off by some tough guy from the Royals. Luckily for Samardzija and the White Sox, the big right hand didn’t connect. The reason it didn’t connect is because Samardzija was falling to the ground, which you could argue is even more dangerous than getting punched in the head by a baseball player wearing mittens.
That brings us to our next culprit.
Lorenzo Cain
The reason we’re not willing to give Samardzija the benefit of the doubt here is because he probably had an added motive for getting involved here, and that would be Cain. These two also have a history, you see.
Ouch. No one wants to be hit with a baseball, so you get why he’s mad.
Cain got especially tough with plenty of blue shirts around him, which actually kind of makes sense because it might have been even more idiotic to throw down with Samardzija who just seems and looks like a legit crazy person.
Some guy on the Royals
Not sure who that guy is, but if you watch in the video, he’s more than willing to fight. The only thing is that as he’s quite literally doing the cowardly lion. He’s more than ready to fight White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers who’s being held back by at least two people. Real hero, that Royals player.
Chris Sale
Sale arguably is the best left-hander in baseball not named Clayton Kershaw, so he should be wrapped in bubble wrap between starts, let alone mixing it up on a cold April night.
And that does it for this version of the baseball blame game. Be sure to check back the next time baseball players act like idiots again.
Thumbnail photo via Matt Marton/USA TODAY Sports Images
