Over the weekend, we were witness to some of the most classic displays of gamesmanship and guttiness that sports has ever seen.
Sure LeBron had a pretty big series and the Cavs are going to their first NBA finals ““ but this is bigger.
This is about the raw emotion in sports that no amount of athletic skill can quantify. This is about the people who don’t even get paid to play the game. This about the dirt-kicking, hat-tossing, on-field tantrum that Cubs manager Lou Piniella threw Saturday at Wrigley Field.
For those of you that missed it, Piniella’s outburst was a sight to be seen.
With Angel Pagan on second and only down one in the eighth inning, the Cubs were actually in position to win a ball game for a change. Then a pitch squirted away from the Braves catcher and Pagan unwisely took off for third. He was correctly called out but that wasn’t what Piniella wanted to hear.
He stormed out of the dugout and headed straight for third-base umpire Mark Wegner like a bull that’s just seen red for the first time. What was said probably cannot be repeated in print but it was most likely along the lines of “Listen, Mark ““ I realize that you are just doing your job but I would like to politely disagree” ““ with plenty of belly-bumping and spit flying everywhere.
As Piniella was pleading his case, he made sure to show his frustration by including plenty of theatrics. At one point, he took off his hat, threw it to the ground like it was to blame for Pagan’s baserunning gaff, then kicked it across the field, twice.
Then he took a step back away from Wegner’s face ““ he had to get the right angle ““ and shoveled dirt all over Wegner’s shoes.
For some unknown reason, Wegner didn’t appreciate Piniella’s company and tossed him out faster than it takes Sweet Lou to down a hot dog.
Now, Piniella is no rookie to ejections ““ he’s been getting the hook since he started managing in 1986, but this one seemed to come from a deeper motivation. The Cubs spent over $300 million this offseason ““ that bought them just one more win than they had at this time last season.
Their players have been reduced to fighting each other (see Zambrano vs. Barrett rounds one and two) and the Cubs have become the laughingstock of baseball once again.
In hopes of trying to spark his team to stop sucking and to take some attention off the dugout brawl on Friday, Piniella had been planning this one for awhile ““ a premeditated and planned ejection.
And the funny thing is the Cubs won 10-1 on Sunday ““ their first win in seven games. Everyone around the league noticed the coincidence. Both White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Dodgers manager Grady Little were ejected on Sunday ““ suddenly getting tossed is as popular as candy is to third-graders.
After the game on Saturday, Piniella stared down a pack of reporters and let everyone know that the league can suspend him (which they did indefinitely) but he’s not scared of the punishment.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” Piniella said. “I just kicked some dirt on the guy and that was it.”
Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, Lou.
E-mail Jason Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu.