From: steph@pegasus.cs.uiuc.edu (Dale Stephenson)
Subject: Re: Braves Update!!
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Lines: 49

In <C5sysG.KAD@odin.corp.sgi.com> luigi@sgi.com (Randy Palermo) writes:

>In article <13586@news.duke.edu> fierkelab@bchm.biochem.duke.edu (Eric Roush) writes:
[...]
>>
>>When Gant turned away, Hirschbeck IMMEDIATELY motioned for Gant
>>to step into the box.  IMO, at this point in time, Hirschbeck
>>was determined to show Gant exactly WHO was in charge of this game.
>>Gant wasn't dawdling; he hadn't had a chance to dawdle.  And Hirschbeck
>>was simply exercising a power play.  Gant resisted, as many of
>>us might to what we thought was an unreasonable request, and
>>Hirschbeck called for the pitch.  At that point, Cox came out on
>>the field, the pitch was thrown, and many other Braves left the
>>dugout.  Cox was tossed "protecting his player".  I was pleasantly
>>surprised that Gant kept his cool enough to stay in the game.
>>
>Did you see the same game I saw? Gant, most reasonable, argued a
>horrible call which Hirschbeck, correctly, did nothing about. Gant
>then proceeded to walk halfway to 3rd base, lean on his bat and
>glare at Hirschbeck. While I don't necessasarily subscribe to the
>theory of showing people up, this was an obvious attempt by Gant to
>do so to Hirschbeck. He left Hirschbeck no choice but to take control
>of the situation. The bottom line is: Gant started a dangerous
>power struggle with Hirschbeck when his team needed him most and
>he lost.

The events I saw were:
1)  Called strike by Hirschbeck
2)  Shocked-looking Gant asks for appeal to first
3)  No appeal to first
4)  Gant steps out of batters box.
5)  Hirschbeck *immediately* orders Gant back in.  [bad move]
6)  Gant ignores Hirschbeck and walks off. [bad move]
7)  Hirschbeck yells at Gant.  Gant is silent.
8)  Hirschbeck calls for the pitch.
9)  Pitch is called a strike.
10)  Cox argues (couldn't see when he came on the field)
11)  Cox is ejected, players everywhere
12)  Play finally resumes.

Gant shouldn't have ignored Hirschbeck.  Not returning made the strike
call fairly likely.  Although I suspect an argument might have gotten
Gant tossed altogether.  But if Hirschbeck had let Gant step out, the
whole incident probably would have been avoided.
-- 
Dale J. Stephenson |*| (steph@cs.uiuc.edu) |*| Baseball fanatic

  "It is considered good to look wise, especially when not 
   overburdened with information" -- J. Golden Kimball
