A Reporter's Life: Mayor, on baseball

Mayor, on baseball

New York City's mayor is getting personally involved in baseball, and he's even going so far as to make comments that really should be archived for all time.

Brief history: The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox are in the midst of a series that will determine which team goes to the ultimate round known as the World Series. Yesterday, they had a short-lived brawl halfway through the game. Today, this article was published. The first two paragraphs:

NEW YORK (AP) - Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez should have been arrested for throwing 72-year-old Yankees coach Don Zimmer to the ground during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday.

"If that happened in New York we would have arrested the perpetrator," Bloomberg said. "Nobody should throw a 70-year-old man to the ground, period. You start doing that, pretty soon you're going to throw a 61-year-old man to the ground, and I have a big vested interest in that."

Posted by Layla at 12:45 PM, October 12, 2003

Really, Mayor? Not even if the old man singles you out in the middle of a giant brawl and tries to attack you?

Yeah, and real interesting how he didn't comment on Jeff Nelson and the Yankees bullpen beating a Boston groundskeeper right into the hospital.

What a moron.

Posted by: TOM at 7:57 PM, October 12, 2003

I've seen the tape a few times, and it still looks to me like Zimmer charged Martinez and Martinez sidestepped him and kind of pushed him away, at which point Zimmer fell down on his own through the magic of momentum. There really wasn't that much "throwing" involved. I think the best question to ask is "What the hell is a 72-year-old man doing on the field participating in a bench-clearing brawl?"

Posted by: Cynthia at 10:43 PM, October 12, 2003

I got into a big argument on a sports messageboard I frequent about this, and everybody was all "I can't believe he threw the old guy down!" and I was all "Then what on earth was he DOING out there in the middle of a BENCH CLEARING BRAWL?" Pedro came out looking like MegaBadGuySupreme here, simply because some old guy decided to take a swipe at his head.

And I'm still awaiting the mayor's comment on Jeff Nelson and the Yankee bullpen beating a Boston groundskeeper into the hospital. Would you have had them arrested, too, Mr. Bloomberg?

Posted by: TOM at 7:19 AM, October 13, 2003

Just to play devil's advocate a little bit ... it's probably a good thing for the mayor that he didn't comment on the Yankee bullpen fight. That one wasn't in plain view of millions of people, and it's still under police investigation. Commenting on it could cause problems for the investigators.

But I do think Cynthia and TOM are right about old man Zimmer being on the field. Those players are giving the game everything they've got, and a lot hinges on whether they win or lose. You just can't expect someone to suddenly stop all adrenaline and rationally think, "Now, wait a minute. This guy is getting on my case, but he's old. Since I know the age of every person here, I know that he is 72. I better not touch him, or else people will be mad."

Posted by: Layla at 9:06 AM, October 13, 2003

Zim always has been a feisty one, he has. Pedro does come out looking bad but Zimmer doesn't look much better as the crazy ol' coot who snapped and went after one specific guy. Sure, Pedro might have done better to just side-step him but there wasn't a lot of time to think. Zim isn't a small guy and he was either going to throttle Martinez or throw a punch. Heat of the battle stuff, I guess.

For all that went on, the fans seemed to be pretty well behaved. Alcohol service was stopped after the 4th inning incident and it appears that no fans were involved in the bullpen incident. I won't say the groundskeeper wasn't at fault but the Yankees players look bad.

Bloomberg, of course you have to comment, but shut yer pie hole. Go Sox.

Posted by: Ferrick at 9:26 AM, October 13, 2003

Just to update, this here is a police report on the bullpen incident:

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/redsox_report.htm

Looks like the officers involved intend to press charges. Which they ought.

Posted by: TOM at 1:57 PM, October 14, 2003

Being the picky police reporter that I am, I have a few comments on the article and the incident. ;-)

First of all, whoever wrote that article for boston.com needs to learn that officers can't press charges.

Second, I wonder why a detective was assigned to one bullpen and an officer was assigned to the other. I'd guess that both had just volunteered for the overtime, but it's still kind of interesting.

Third, I Googled some more and learned that the alleged victim is from Londonderry, N.H. Then I got out the New Hampshire map that Sam highlighted and marked for me, and I learned that I did not see Londonderry when I was there. Derry (east of Londonderry), however, shows up on my hard drive once. Yes, I am a nerd.

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A Reporter's Life

Mayor, on baseball

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