A Bad Throw, All the Way Around

Mike Downey, implying that Pedro Guerrero should have responded to being hit in the head with a shrug, misses the point entirely. Cone started it!

What baseball needs is a rule to remove the judgment from the umpires. If a pitcher hits a batter and the batter must go on the disabled list, then the pitcher must be suspended for the length of the disabled-list term, unless videotapes show that the pitch was within a half foot of being a strike. Isn’t that simple? Appeals should be allowed to handle situations such as spurious disabling of minor players to remove star pitchers, or borderline calls.

I doubt that Dwight Gooden would let a high inside fastball get away from him when he wants to further intimidate a weak hitter if he knew that he could miss a couple of months if that hitter was just a little slow in dodging.

RICHARD ARONSON

Los Angeles