“What goes around comes around.” “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” Any number of cliches can be applied to why Orioles third baseman Manny Machado is in his current predicament of being a head-hunted target for the Boston Red Sox and most any team that the Orioles play against.
Machado has had a number of run-ins with players since bursting onto the MLB scene in 2012 as a 19-year-old prodigy. Hes never been one to hold his tongue, lead with modesty or back down from a potential fight. As great as Machado has been as a player, his reputation as a cocky, rule-skirter lives on, even if he is maturing as some would suggest.
And now, because the bean balls have gotten to be a headache for Machado and he feels like a target, he wants to go on a profanity-laced tirade about how getting hit in the head can hurt players.
Manny Machado is FED. UP!pic.twitter.com/NKiJfhihxp
The Shadow League (@ShadowLeagueTSL) May 3, 2017
This is the same guy who did a bunch of foul stuff to various players and has hit guys in the head with his bat before. Now he’s calling for the protection of MLB baseball?
Ha ! I say you reap what you sew and whether the Pedroia slide was dirty or just an accident, Machado cannot expect to be given the benefit of the doubt.
Hes been accused of being an all-time dirty player in the past.
In 2014, As lefty Fernando Abad threw consecutive pitches that nearly hit Machado. In response, Machado did something that could have injured a fan or an innocent player. On the next pitch near him, Machado let his bat go and it went sailing towards Abad and ended up near third baseman Josh Donaldson and the result was a bench-clearing melee that ended with Machado getting suspended for five games.
That As series was particularly eventful as Machado was involved in several incidents that can be described as dirty or against the games understood etiquette. Before the bat throwing incident, Machado got in the face of infielder Josh Donaldson to start the first melee. The bat throwing incident prompted the second.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
As if those two incidents weren’t bad enough, Machado intentionally caught As catcher Derek Norris with a couple of vicious backswings that knocked him out of the series third game and didnt apologize or check to see if he was alright.
Machado still has much growing up to do. Hitting a guy in the head is a bad idea, but threatening to hit a guy with a bat in retaliation for getting thrown at is a terrible idea. Just ask Juan Marichal, who on August 22nd, 1965, in the bottom of the third inning, infamously clubbed Dodgers catcher John Roseboro over the head with a bat, an action never seen before or again on a major league field. Marichal made the MLB Hall of Fame in 1983, but he is as remembered for his despicable act as he is for being his eras surgeon general of pitching.
Besides, Machado has hands. He didn’t seem to need a bat to two-piece Yordano Ventura.
Its time for Manny to tone it down before somebody really does get hurt. Have some respect for the game and the veterans who play it. And stop playing the victim when you made the bed you currently lie in. For Machado to say that he doesnt know why guys are throwing at him shows just how in the dark this young, talented, but occasionally out of control, player is.
