From: Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: Celticsstuffgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To: celtics@xxxxxxxx,Celticsstuffgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [Celtics' Stuff ] Law and Disorder on the playing field.... Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 21:32:24 -0400
I just saw a news report where the local sports director thinks everyone "overreacted" to the fact that a professional baseball player unlimbered his bat and swung at a young woman dressed in a food costume during a mascot race.
He says they overreacted because he didn't hit her that hard and she only got skinned knees. Apparently he missed--or chose to overlook--a few facts. She wouldn't have skinned knees if the idiot hadn't hit her on the head with a baseball bat. the fact that the costume absorbed the blow belies the fact that these guys are paid to be able to hit a ball travelling 95 miles an hour hard enough to knock it out of the stadium. It's assault and battery, by the definition of the law in most places.
Did it look silly? Yes, it's hard not to smile a little at seeing a sausage with arms and legs fall down. But there was a person in there, and I doubt she was smiling. I doubt her family was smiling. the fact that she wasn't seriously hurt is a relief, not an excuse. This is exactly the kind of behavior that leads to the more serious things that happen to people like Darrell Armstrong and the Portland Trailblazers. They get away with little things an then expect to be treated like they have diplomatic immunity.
I'm sure the officers who arrested the ballplayer will take some heat and some bad jokes. Not from me. The cops did exactly what they should have done. Someone hit someone else with a baseball bat and that person was arrested.
Unfortunately, the effort has already been undermined by the District Attorney's office, which has declined to press criminal charges. Look at what happened a while back when two dads got into a fight at their kid's hockey game. One died, the other went to prison for murder. This time, thank goodness, they were lucky.
What happens NEXT time???
Snoopy the Celtics Beagle Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website