I'll Be Damned.... There Is Crying In Baseball

There's a lot of unspoken rules in baseball. It's a very old game, and certain things are done or not done as professional courtesy or retribution, and a lot is made out of "showing a guy up". If you stand and admire a home run you just slammed 450 feet instead of trotting directly to first base, you may get "plunked" in your next at-bat for "showing up" the pitcher. If you argue balls and strikes with an ump, you'll likely get tossed immediately for "showing up" the umpire. Another thing that is not done is that a manager never takes a catcher out in the middle of an inning and put in a replacement. You just don't. It's considered professionally rude to the catcher, in effect saying, "You suck so bad that I'm willing to go through the whole hubbub of making some bench-warmer put on all his gear and replace you, right this minute."

In the Washington Nationals vs. Houston Astros game on Thursday, 3rd-string catcher Matt LeCroy was catching for the Nationals. He has a notoriously terrible arm (which is why he's 3rd-string), and the Astros had stolen a record-breaking 7 bases on him by the 7th inning. With two Astros on base, the Nationals' manager Frank Robinson -- a baseball legend who's been in baseball for over 50 years, and one of the few black managers in the league -- took out LeCroy with only one out in the inning. The fans and announcers were shocked, but understood why it had to be done. If they didn't take him out, the Astros would keep stealing bases forever and they would lose the game. LeCroy was replaced with Robert Fick, who is normally an outfielder but can play catcher in an emergency.

What happened after the game gave me hope for humanity and good taste, something I rarely get inspired to feel. In the post-game press room interview, Nationals manager Frank Robinson was actually crying because he had embarrassed one of his players like that.

"I feel for him," Robinson said. "And I hope the fans understand. And I just appreciate him hanging in there as long as he did."

LeCroy wasn't even offended, and took it like a pro, saying: "If my daddy was managing this team, I'm sure he would have done the same thing."

Again, remember that Robinson is a black man in his 60's, a pillar of the game of baseball and one of the most highly regarded and respected men around, period. And there he was, not bawling or silly, but with a steady stream of tears on his face, his voice shaky, all because he had professionally embarrassed one of his own players who was giving the best he could, in a virtually meaningless non-divisional game in the first 1/6 of the baseball season.

That's class. That's balls. That's a real man with real integrity, something we rarely get to see anymore in any multi-billion dollar corporate entertainment enterprise, especially professional sports.

Roger