Who Cares If It Was Impulsive? It Was Repulsive, Regardless

Not much of a year for guys called Pete. First, Peter (Pete) Rose got thumbed out of the ballpark for a whole month because he thumped an ump, and now, Pedro (Pete) Guerrero has gotten four days off for bad behavior, with no chance of a stay of sentence even from the big Pete himself--Ueberroth.

Guerrero, who always did swing a mean bat, did his world-famous impression of an Olympic hammer thrower Sunday at Dodger Stadium, thrilling spectators with a wind-aided throw of more than 60 feet 6 inches. His aim, alas, was lousy, and therefore Guerrero’s bat did not conk New York Mets’ pitcher David Cone on his little Cone head. If it had, we would have seen the first box score since the days of Johnny Roseboro and Juan Marichal that found it necessary to include: “Hit by Batter.”

Guerrero got the bad news Tuesday--a four-day suspension and a $1,000 fine. Compared to Rose, Guerrero got off with a rap on the wrist. Maybe the punishment meted out by National League President Bart Giamatti would have been different if Pedro, like Pete, had made contact with the object of his ire. After all, thugs who throw knives at innocent bystanders do go to jail longer when the knife hits its target.

We have mixed feelings, obviously, about Guerrero’s suspension. On behalf of Dodger fans everywhere, we are bleeding blue over losing the club’s leading hitter, as well as the entire left side of the infield, seeing as how shortstop Alfredo Griffin was knocked out of commission by another Met’s inadvertent beanball on the very same weekend. Within a few hours--poof, there went the best Dodger on offense and the best Dodger on defense.

On the other hand, Guerrero’s actions were inexcusable. He behaved like a Little Leaguer. What if that bat struck Cone? What if it caught him flush in the face?

Guerrero might have been looking at anything from a monthlong suspension to a lifetime banishment from the sport--and had Cone been seriously hurt, the pitcher would have been within his rights to call the cops and have Guerrero thrown in the slammer.

Getting hit by a pitch is an occupational hazard. Getting hit by a bat is assault with a deadly weapon.

Guerrero got hot because his friend was hit by Doc Gooden the night before, and because Cone came inside not once, not twice, but three times when Guerrero came to bat in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game. The third time was the charm, a curveball catching Guerrero on the shoulder, after starting out toward his skull. Guerrero had had enough.

Fine. Charge the mound. Guys do it all the time. You got a beef with the pitcher, run out there to the mound and duke it out. Maybe it’s a little primitive, but at least it’s a human response.

You run out there, exchange a couple of glancing blows and get pulled away by a bunch of your teammates. Nobody gets too messed up. Nobody has been seriously hurt in a brawl on the mound since Dave Rozema of the Detroit Tigers hurt himself trying to deliver a karate kick.

Throwing your bat, though, that’s vicious and ugly. Next time Guerrero gets into a serious disagreement with the catcher, will he turn around and start pounding the squatting man on top of the mask with his bat? Will he fling a bat at a fan who has been heckling him? Poor David Cone didn’t even have anything left to throw back at Guerrero--except maybe a rosin bag.

Guerrero may play in the city of angels, but he definitely is not one. He infuriates his peers with his tortoise-like home run trot, which is just the thing to make some pitchers retaliate by throwing the next pitch at a teammate.

Guerrero enraged Rick Sutcliffe of the Chicago Cubs that way a year ago, and rumbled with Sutcliffe again earlier this month, taking three steps toward the mound and continuing the discussion outside the clubhouse after the game.

A recent USA Today poll cited Guerrero as one of the game’s most unpopular players among opponents--although Guerrero undoubtedly could take a poll that found USA Today to be one of the most unpopular papers among opponents. Just kidding.

Guerrero’s agent, Tony Attanasio, speaking on his client’s behalf Tuesday, said that the Dodger’s “act was impulsive,” which the league president certainly took into account.

Yet, so was Rose’s act. So was Rozema’s. So was Marichal’s, when he bludgeoned Roseboro with a Louisville Slugger. So was Woody Hayes’, at that Ohio State-Clemson football game.

Just because an act was not premeditated does not excuse it. Guerrero could have gotten 30 days, easy. Probably should have.

The Dodgers are lucky not to have lost him for a greater period of time, and it will be interesting to see whether still another big Pete--O’Malley--asks Guerrero into his office anytime soon to ask him to check his bad habits at the door.

O’Malley runs as classy an organization as exists in baseball, but any player who hurls bats at another player is not acting in the best interests of the organization. Pedro pulls anything like this again, and maybe it’s time to see what Baltimore will give the Dodgers for him.

Diehard fans will sit back in their chairs at this and say: “Hey, wait a second, the guy just lost his temper. Happens every day.”

Listen, man. A batter who throws bats at the dugout is a guy with a temper. A batter who throws bats at the pitcher is a guy with a problem.