Oswalt Suspended

Major League Baseball has announced that Astros ace pitcher Roy Oswalt will be suspended five games for hitting a Cubs player in a game. Since the dreadful Chron doesn't bother to give much background on that game, here's a flashback.

There's no doubt in my mind that Oswalt was retaliating intentionally, although he made it look good enough that I don't think he should be suspended.

What is most annoying about the suspension decision is that no punishment was handed out to Kerry Wood, who really started it all by nearly hitting Bagwell, and then intentionally hitting Julio Lugo and breaking his forearm (he looks right at Lugo squaring around, and then fires RIGHT AT HIM TWO FEET OFF THE PLATE. This was no pitch that "got away"). I wonder if the same goons running Airport Security are in charge of MLB punishments these days? Punish the good guys and ignore the bad guys, because of some f*cked up notion of "the rules."

[Posted at 12:27 CST on 08/24/02] [Link]