Fernando Rodney Fires Ball At Reporters, Jim Leyland Figures They Wanted A Souvenir
Fernando Rodney, Jim Leyland September 8th. 2009, 9:00am
[Update] Marc Topkin is reporting that Rodney will receive a 3-game suspension for throwing the ball into the press box.
[9:00am] On Saturday, the St. Pete Times wrote about an incident involving Fernando Rodney following Friday’s game at the Trop against the Tigers.
Tigers closer Fernando Rodney said he was acting on emotion when he celebrated Friday’s win with an unusual and dangerous maneuver: throwing the ball from the field into the press box…The ball bounced near several working writers. No one was hurt.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland, most likely in between puffs of a cigarette, tried to poo-poo the incident (scroll to bottom).
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Leyland said. “Obviously there was no intent to do anything wrong. I’ve seen 30 balls thrown into the stands during batting practice every night. I’ve seen third-base coaches throw them into the stands over the dugout.”
Yes folks, Leyland just compared underhanding a ball to a 12-year old behind the duguout to firing a ball 150-feet into the press box. Why didn’t this guy try that defense.
Luckily for the reporters, Rodney’s aim was about as good as normal.
Detroit Tigers reliever celebrates win over Tampa Bay Rays by tossing ball into press box [St. Pete Times]
Carlos Peña becomes first Tampa Bay Rays player to reach 100 RBIs in three seasons [St. Pete Times]
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I sit one section over from the press box. The ball was thrown high in the air and crashed down on the desk of the first row in the box, right next to Topkin. The guys in there were all packing up and no one saw it coming. Topkin turned to my section and we told him it was Rodney. He sort of threw up his hands like, “of COURSE it was Rodney.” For what it’s worth, it didn’t look like he was aiming or anything. He was just frustrated. But with no one looking, he’s lucky it didn’t break a laptop or bean one of the writers.
Sounds like a lot about nothing….I’m with Leyland!
If the ball would have landed in the stands..and a fan got a free ball…
we wouldn’t be hearing anything about it…
But because the media was involved….”they could have got hurt” PLEASE!
Guarantee they (media babies) went crying to management…Now MLB has to get involved…Please don’t they have enough (problems) to do???
So, if I drop a brick of gold from a roof and it hits you in the head…is it ok since the gold is valuable?
Standard protocol is for the players to throw the balls to people that are, you know, looking.
I was in the tv booth, one level above the press area, and was watching Rodney the entire time. As you recall, he had a tough time with that save and almost blew it. When the final out was made, the first baseman flipped him the ball, and he just launched it into the stands. It seemed like a symbolic release of the tension he had just dealt with after nearly blowing the save, but he wasn’t angry. He was relieved.
Anyway, he wasn’t aiming specifically for the press box. He just threw it. It was about five feet short of the tv booth. I leaned out to try and catch it, but it dropped short and instead went into the press box below.
I guess it’s one of those things that is only a big deal if something bad happens. I personally didn’t think much of it since it didn’t hit anybody.
[...] One year ago on Rays Index we wrote about an incident in which Fernando Rodney fired a baseball into the press box at The Trop. [...]
[...] Two years ago on Rays Index we wrote about an incident in which Fernando Rodney fired a baseball into the press box at The Trop. [...]