The other day Alex Rodriguez aka A-Rod or A-Roid, faced Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster. After several clear inside pitches designed to hit A-Roid, one finally hit the mark. Immediately benches were warned, but Dempster stayed in the game. Afterwards, Red Sox manager belied ignorance of any seeming intent on behalf of his less than star pitcher. 

As an avid Rays fan, I’m partial to both the Sox and the Yankees, always hoping against hope that both can lose. But since baseball is not soccer, that’s just not really an option. Regardless of the fact that hit batter fueled a Yankees rally which proved the difference in their victory, the real discussion afterwards lay in the ethics of such a pitch, not in pragmatics (how un-American of us to push the pragmatic to the side).

Who was right? 

A-Roid is facing more than a 200 game suspension for his alleged involvement in steroids, which he admitted to using before. MLB has somewhat of smoking gun, so after his appeal is heard, A-Roid will be A-Bored for a season and a half. On top of that, A-Rod might be the most unlike-able baseball player on one of the more polarizing teams. Despite his individual and team success, he plays himself up to be the victim. Some of these players have been lying their whole lives, that they actually believe the lies they tell. Perhaps that, or an extreme narcissism, or both is at the root to why A-Roid won’t simply admit he did wrong? 

So pitchers have every “reason” to hate A-Rod. The rest of the 10+ players suspended by MLB have taken their suspensions, but not A-Rod. That’s why Dempster beaned him, even though it took him 4 pitches to do so. 

So who is right? 

Should pitchers be able to hit the “cheater” (allegedly)? Or is A-Rod right, for according to the letter of the law, he has the right to appeal-which will allow him to play the rest of the season? In that case, he shouldn’t be “targeted” (again, allegedly because no one admits to hitting someone) by pitchers.

Who’s side should one take?

It’s probably important to look at something more than the arm that through the baseball. What’s really being said by that pitch? You cheat, we don’t, and we will punish you the best way we can for cheating. It’s the position of the legalist. The one who says I follow the law, you don’t, so I will punish you the best way I can. Perhaps shunning, running or gunning. Many folks fall into this category even though they would never admit to this. You judge, we don’t judge, so we will judge you for judging. We will do something about it, and not leave it to the legal process.  

You don’t have to be a Westboro Baptist member to fall into this line of work. You don’t have to vote Republican. Behind the pitch, there is an unrealized self-righteousness which produces anger. Whether it comes out in a subtle form as with labels, racism, or blatant insults and violence, the heart behind it is the same. Self-righteousness always pops its ugly head.

Is it possible to take another route? Is it possible to believe that A-Rod shouldn’t be allowed to play yet not personally take matters into your own hands? Can you disagree with someone’s behavior, believe it a sin, and yet not judge them? Can you not make someone pay by shunning, gunning, or running, but instead leave it to another Judge?

That is the position the Rays will take when A-Roid and his company play the Tampa Bay Rays in a week.

“You know what, vigilante justice and unilateral decisions, I’m not into that stuff,” Maddon said. “There’s rules in place. There’s a board  assigned to make those kind of decisions. I believe in players’ controlling the game itself in regards to what’s happening in that game, and we always talk about policing that. But  that is totally separate from the unwritten rules of baseball. So I do not agree with that at all. And, again, I don’t believe in rogue unilateral decisions or players meting out discipline, whereas this is something entirely different.”

Asked if the Rays pitchers would act similarly, Maddon said: “There’s no reason to. There’s absolutely zero reason to do that for me. That’s what I believe. I believe let the mechanism in place work and everybody do their jobs. … Don’t attempt to be judge and jury and just let everybody do their jobs.”

MLB, led by Bud Selig is probably not much more than a joke. The man who promoted the Roided out long-ball era now wants to be known by cleaning it up? Yet there is another judge to whom we can leave things. 

Without a Judge, on whom you can never pull a fast one, we are forced to take matters into our own hands. Without such a Judge, we only have the options of retaliating or overlooking. We only have the options of becoming an angry self-righteous legalist or driven by indifference at what we know to be wrong. A legalist or one with license to do whatever fulfills us at the moment. 

The irony behind removing God’s wrath or judgment from our picture of Him is that we become more wrathful and judgmental. Or we become a completely self absorbed relativist caring about self before family and community. Neither seem all that good to me.