A Slow Day In Sports

With only a handful of Major League games on the schedule today and the NBA Finals taking a day off it was a rather quiet day in sports. However don't you worry, I still have some thoughts about the things that did take place, specifically; MLB takes a page from the NBA and in a surprise act the Orlando Magic make a classy move. The most important thing that happened Monday though? Just over 24 hours after Big O Sports Blog ripped Stephen A. Smith for his incessant and incoherent yelling about the NBA Finals during segments of Sportscenter, Smith was no where to be found on the set with the crew covering the Finals during the 6 PM EST edition of the show. Coincidence? I think not.


MLB Handing Out Suspensions Like Candy on Halloween

In a season full of milestone chases like Glavine going for 300 wins, Biggio approaching 3,000 hits, Manny Ramirez, A-Rod, Jim Thome, and Frank Thomas all closing in on 500 dingers, baseball is developing a trend that has to a certain extent been sliding in under the radar. Lately the commissioner's office has been handing out suspensions frequently for actions which are considered fairly normal occurrences, at least in baseball circles. In the past couple of weeks, Lou Pinella was suspended four games for what many considered a rather unspectacular run in with some umpires, A.J. Pierzynski was suspended a game for showing frustrating, apparently at himself for swinging and missing at strike three, and Scott Proctor was suspended four games for the extremely common act of throwing at a batter, just to name a few examples. I don't know what is going on lately, but its absolutely ridiculous.

This is the kind of the you expect to see in the NBA where players are routinely suspended for
simply wondering too far off of their bench. However the NBA has a good reason to enforce such strict penalties, even if they go overboard with suspensions on occasion. If you have forgotten a couple years back some NBA players actually went into the stands during a game and started a melee. When this kind of thing happens the league has a right to overreact to any little thing and suspend a player. To my knowledge though, baseball hasn't had an issue with players hopping into the stands throwing haymakers. Baseball is well known for its brawls but they are more or less harmless seeing as by the looks of things 99% of Major Leaguers punch like junior high girls. Even Albert Belle at his craziest just gave an elbow to Fernando Vina's neck, who by the way was playing second base, not sitting in section C.

There is really just know reason for the commish to crack down on things that are not even violent for the most part in anyway. Managers argue with umps all the time, its just part of the game, how is a four game suspension necessary? Just eject the guy like you always have and move on. As far as the Pierzynski case goes, it is one of the most unjustified suspensions I have ever seen handed down. After striking out A.J. smacked home plate with his bat as he walked away. He had swung and miss so he was likely not acting out toward the umpire, it appeared as though he was simply fed up with himself for striking out. Later that day he was suspended for this. My question is, when is the last time you saw a game where at least a dozen guys didn't react more strongly to this after making an out? What harm did Pierzynski do by hitting the ground as he walked away? Basically Major League Baseball and its commissioner need to relax a little bit. They haven't really had any ugly incidents to incite this type of overreacting, so they just need to take a step back and re-evaluate what merits a suspension and what is just a normal part of baseball.

Magic Offer Fans Refund (Not for Failing to Show up in the Playoffs)

It was recently reported that the Orlando Magic have offered refunds to any fan who purchased Magic season tickets after the team announced the hiring of Florida coach Billy Donovan. Orlando experienced a boom in tickets sales in the 24 hour period after hiring Billy Donovan, only to have Donovan return to Florida a day after the announcement.

Considering the bad reputation professional sports franchises get for caring too much about money and not enough about the fans which fuel their teams' success, it was refreshing to see the Magic make such a classy move. The team was under no legal obligation to offer fans their money back but they did so anyway, simply because they felt it was the right thing to do. I don't have a lot to say about this other than that the Magic deserve their props on this one. So way to go Orlando, hopefully Stan Van Gundy proves to be a good second choice for ya.


Thats all for the Big O Sports Blog today, check back tomorrow for more and as alway, your comments, questions and feedback are more than welcome.