ShareThisBy DAVID LASSEN
Scripps Howard News Service
Friday, August 17, 2007
Rather than simply decry Tuesday's Jose Offerman incident as the latest sporting outrage, sign of the decline of Western civilization, etc., let's employ it as what coaches and other instructors like to call "a teachable moment."
As such, it offers at least three clear-cut lessons:
-- When a former major leaguer goes to the independent minor leagues to try to resurrect a career, he might not only kill it off, instead, but also has the opportunity to tarnish whatever he did in the majors.
-- Even if you feel steroids are a huge black eye on the game of baseball, there are clearly worse things that can happen - like, say, attempted manslaughter in the second inning of a ballgame. This problem, at least, should be easier to address.
-- Criminal acts, stupid ones, or criminally stupid ones that once would have embarrassed the perpetrators only on a regional basis are now good for national and even international humiliation, thanks to the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle.
To recap the incident, in case you missed it: Offerman, the former infielder and outfielder with the Dodgers, Royals, Red Sox, Mariners, Twins, Phillies and Mets -- he played 15 major league seasons -- has been playing in the independent Atlantic League, trying to earn another trip to the majors.
On Tuesday night, he homered in the first inning of a game, and was hit by a pitch in the second -- at which time he charged the mound, bat in hand, and took swings at both the opposing pitcher (who suffered a broken finger) and catcher (who suffered a potentially season-ending concussion). He was subsequently arrested by the police providing security at the game in Bridgeport, Conn., and charged with two counts of assault.
The Atlantic League has suspended him indefinitely pending a final decision. However that turns out, it's pretty safe to assume Offerman's chances of getting back to the majors are gone. There can't be much of a market for 38-year-olds who attack people with bats.
And so Offerman has not only finished off his career, he's probably tainted the major league career he had. From now on, he'll be a two-time All-Star who batted .273 but once assaulted a pitcher with a bat, similar to how former major leaguer Kevin Mitchell is also remembered for getting into a fight with an opposing team's owner while managing Somona County of the defunct Western League.
The Bridgeport CEO, having lost two players to Offerman's attack, is asking for Offerman to be banned from the league for life. That seems entirely appropriate, and this might not be a bad time for all leagues, from the majors on down, to set hard-and-fast penalties, just to ensure this remains an aberration, rather than a new trend.
The closest parallel in major league history probably came in 1965, when San Francisco pitcher Juan Marichal hit Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat, opening a cut that reportedly required 14 stitches. In the how-times-change department, Marichal was suspended for eight games and fined $1,750. Roseboro sued Marichal for $110,000, but settled for $7,000.
How many zeros would be added onto any of those figures - the length of the suspension, the fine, the lawsuit - today? (It's easy to imagine a major league player being suspended for a full season for an attack like this - or being suspended for life, but getting it cut to a full season as a result of the inevitable appeal by the players' association.)
As for the last point, about the Internet's ability to spread the reach of acts like Offerman's to a degree that was once unimaginable? Consider this: I once saw the exact same thing happen in a minor league baseball game, and a whole lot of Googling has turned up nothing about it.
Passing through Oklahoma City, I stopped off to see the Oklahoma City 89ers of the American Association - then the Phillies' Triple-A team - play a game. I don't remember the opponent, and I'm not sure about the year, either 1979 or 1980. (I can narrow it down to those two because I also remember the 89ers started an entire outfield of three guys named Orlando - Orlando Gonzales, Orlando Isales and Orlando Sanchez - and it appears that only could have happened in those two seasons.) Anyway, the point is this: that night, a player was hit by a pitch and attacked the pitcher with his bat. I vividly remember the attack - he swung and hit the player in the midsection - the bench-clearing brawl that followed, and the newspaper story the next morning, which began, "Warming up for the next Canadian harp seal hunt " But I remember no other details, can't find anything on the Internet and certainly don't recall any national outcry about it.
Clearly, none of those things would be true of a similar incident today.
Just ask Jose Offerman.
Contact Star columnist David Lassen at dlassen(at)VenturaCountyStar.com.
