Mike Rizzo Says the Harper Beaning Is the Most Classless Thing He’s Ever Seen
Washington Nationals‘ GM Mike Rizzo isn’t very shy about what happened during last night’s game between his star Bryce Harper and Philadelphia Phillies ’ pitcher Cole Hamels. In fact, Mike Rizzo doesn’t believe holding things back is an option when discussing Cole Hamels. Here are some quotes Mike Rizzo gave to Adam Kilgore in a phone interview today:
“Players take care of themselves. I’ve never seen a more classless, gutless chicken [bleep] act in my 30 years in baseball … It was a gutless chicken [bleep] [bleeping] act. That was a fake-tough act. No one has ever accused Cole Hamels of being old school.”
“Cole Hamels says he’s old school? He’s the polar opposite of old school. He’s fake tough. He thinks he’s going to intimidate us after hitting our 19-year rookie who’s eight games into the big leagues? He doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.”
Who’s fake tough now? What are you going to do Mr. Rizzo? Just because your key player got hit doesn’t mean you need to get so defensive about it. Heck, Harper doesn’t even care he was hit by the pitch. Get the sand out of your… well you know the rest. This is also the same GM that had a deal in place with the Chicago White Sox, saying if they got Edwin Jackson they would trade the Sox Adam Dunn. But Rizzo pulled out at the last minute, and now both of those guys are ironically on those teams.
This just keeps getting better and better. In case you missed it, Cole Hamels told Bryce Harper to get off his lawn last night, plunking him in the midsection in the first inning. Harper got his revenge when he made Hamels look foolish by stealing home on a pick-off to first for his first Major League steal. As the game went on, the testiness kept rising, so much so Nationals’ pitcher Jordan Zimmermann plunked Hamels in the knee. After that beaning, the benches were warned and the craziness stopped. That is until Cole Hamels admitted after the game he hit Harper on purpose.
As I wrote yesterday, I love this stuff. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, considering it’s clean hit by pitches. I find this absolutely no different than a clean check in hockey. The balls were thrown no where near the head, and both players got their revenge (Harper steals home, Hamels wins the game and gets a hit), so I see nothing wrong with anything that happened.
