Here’s your bit of stupidity for the day – in the bottom of the eighth inning of Wednesday’s game between Washington and Milwaukee, benches cleared after Ian Desmond took exception with a hard slide into second base by Carlos Gomez. The funny thing was that Desmond wasn’t even in the vicinity of Gomez’s slide, as he flipped the ball to second baseman Kevin Frandsen to get the out.
How ridiculous is this? I’m not sure what Desmond would have preferred Gomez do here, aside from maybe just lying down in the middle of the basepath. After the game, here’s what Desmond had to say (via MLB.com).
“I just told him I didn’t agree with the way he slid into second base with a seven-run lead,” Desmond said. “I’ve defended that guy in a lot of clubhouse arguments. I respect the way he plays the game, but I’ve got no respect for that. If he thinks he got drilled on purpose by our pitcher making his Major League debut … to take it out on a guy who’s grinded his butt off to make a Major League career in Kevin Frandsen …
“In a World Series game, you slide like that. In a seven-run-differential game, there’s no time for that. … I’ve got no respect if you can defend that.”
Well then, I guess Ian Desmond has no respect for me, because I thought there was nothing wrong with the play at all. He didn’t steamroll Frandsen, he didn’t smash into his knees – hell, he didn’t even TOUCH him with his feet during his slide. I think it’s pretty funny that Kevin Frandsen, the grinder that Desmond respects so much, didn’t bother to cause a ruckus with Gomez. But Desmond apparently felt the need to stick up for his teammate, no matter how out of bounds his criticism may have been.