Throw the book at ball-thrower Castillo

Have you seen the video? Did you see how hard Julio Castillo threw that baseball toward the opposing team's dugout? Did you notice the menacing look on his face? The rage in his eyes? The unmistakable intent of his action?

"I saw it on TV, and it looked pretty intense," said Class A St. Lucie Mets general manager Paul Taglieri, who has worked in the minor leagues since 1991. "I can't believe the kid threw that ball. I've seen some bad stuff over the years, but I've never seen anything like that."

What happened during the benches-clearing brawl between the Dayton Dragons and Peoria Chiefs in the first inning of last Thursday night's Class-A Midwest League game was more than frightening.

More than disgraceful.

It was criminal.

And Castillo, who was hauled off to jail in handcuffs and charged with felony assault, should go to prison for a long, long time. Then, he should be sent back to the Dominican Republic, where he can spend the rest of his life eating bugs and aching for the riches he threw away.

There's no place for a punk like that in baseball, which should never again allow him to wear a uniform. There's no place for a thug like that in America, which already has too many pseudo-macho dirt bags.

Let there be no doubt: This wasn't an accident. This wasn't merely a matter of a man losing his temper and, in the heat of the moment, doing something incomprehensibly stupid.

Castillo, a 21-year-old pitching prospect, knew exactly what he was doing.

He knew three of his Peoria teammates had been hit with pitches the night before, when the Chiefs lost to Dayton on Angel Cabrera's walk-off home run.

He knew he was expected to stand up for those teammates, which is why he beaned the second batter he faced, then deliberately drilled Cabrera, and then -- after Cabrera took out Peoria's shortstop with a hard slide on a double-play grounder -- buzzed the next batter's head with a fastball.

He knew he could hurt someone when, at the start of the brawl, he charged in and, throwing as hard as he could from just 40 feet away, fired the ball toward the Dayton dugout.

According to the police report, in fact, Castillo admitted he was trying to hit someone in the dugout. So the fact that this crime was committed at the ballpark is irrelevant. It wasn't part of the game. It wasn't a baseball incident.

Castillo had a weapon in his hand. And he used it.

But he missed his target.

Somehow, he missed the dugout entirely.

Instead, he hit 44-year-old Chris McCarthy, a fan who was at the game with his wife and two kids, sitting in the wrong place and the wrong time.

The ball struck McCarthy's face. He was taken away on a stretcher and hospitalized overnight. But, apparently, he wasn't seriously injured.

That changes nothing.

When Castillo threw that baseball, it might as well have been a gunshot. He could've killed someone -- in the dugout, in the crowd, perhaps even an innocent child.

Frankly, Castillo should've been charged with something more than assault. Attempted murder, maybe. But if the police and prosecutors in Dayton won't make an example of him, baseball must.

A fine and suspension isn't nearly enough. Nor is any empty apology Castillo might offer now. Baseball, which cannot tolerate such depraved behavior, must impose the death penalty.

A lifetime ban.

"He's going to take a big hit," Taglieri said. "But with charges and lawsuits, the fine and suspension will be the least of his worries."

Let's hope so.

I've seen the video.

Castillo, as much a coward as he is a criminal, deserves to be hit at least as hard as he hit McCarthy.

(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at ray.mcnulty(at)Scripps.com or on the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)