Manny Machado threw his bat towards third base in Sunday’s game against the Athletics, earning an immediate ejection. We knew the league’s response to this was coming soon after, and now, thanks to Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown, we’ve learned that the Orioles’ third baseman will be suspended five games for his immature and dangerous actions.
Manny Machado will be suspended 5 games for throwing his bat
He plans to appeal, of course.
Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
Problem solved, right? Machado apologized on Monday, he’s been punished, and we can all move on. Well, no, not yet, because Machado is planning to appeal his suspension for an infraction no one is buying as unintentional.
At least now you know rolling your eyes is absolutely an acceptable response to a recorded apology that occurred without multiple members of the media present so they couldn’t ask any tough questions like “Why did you throw a bat at someone, anyway?”
It’s just five games. How long would a member of the A’s been out had the bat struck them in the wrong place? How long would Machado had been suspended if he had actually managed to make contact with his helicopter act -- like his now-teammate Delmon Young did in the minors when he struck an umpire with a thrown bat and was suspended for 10 times as many games as Machado -- instead of just whizzing it through an infield hole? It’s hard to believe Machado is actually sincere with his apology* when he plans to stave off accepting a suspension for obvious wrongdoing, especially when the suspension isn’t overly long.
*Then again, most of his apology is directed towards his coaches and teammates and then Derek Norris once he’s prompted to, so maybe this is an “I’m sorry you were offended by my actions”-style apology anyway.
Former Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon threw a bat at Ryan Rupe back in 2002, and though neither side seemed to think it was intentional -- Devil Rays’ manager Hal McRae didn’t make a stink when the umpires didn’t eject Nixon from the game -- MLB suspended Nixon for four games:
Machado (or at least the Orioles) felt he needed to apologize for his behavior on camera, where it could be forever embedded at MLB.com for anyone who cared to watch it so long as their servers exist, and he only got five games. Yeah, sure, appeal the suspension, go crazy. This is a great injustice that you must fight. Just don’t do it with a bat, please.
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