It has been everywhere and anywhere. The long tongue of our hungry media needing some fisticuffs to salivate over, exploit and then analyze infinitum.
So what happened on Memorial Day in San Franciso and how can it be interpreted from a social and baseball standpoint?
This was precisely the selfish act of a shown up pitcher needing to exact revenge.
Let’s digress into a quick capsule of the backstory. In 2014 Bryce Harper hit two long home runs off Mr. Strickland and stood to admire the majestic flight of his launchings. This was the cringeworthy 2014 postseason in which Strickland allowed six home runs. Despite such malevolence, the Giants prevailed and won their third title in six years. Many of the San Francisco faithful believed that Strickland, despite his Ryne Duren fastball, was headed to Fresno or Korea or somewhere far away where fastballs and big sluggers would not be compatible.
The Giants being the hand-holding, good natured franchise they are stuck with Strickland and Strickland responded by working in a wider assortment of pitches and rapidly became a nuanced hurler, and an effective one at that.
Since “Home Run October” Strickland has appeared in close to 150 games for the Giants and has an ERA hovering around 3.00. So, that back story makes it all the more depressing to see that revenge could percolate for 2.5 years only to come flying out at 98mph on a sunny holiday by the bay.
In reaction to the fiasco many players, sportscasters, even my grandmother pronounced “it’s baseball” akin to when your 17-year-old kid comes home smelling like a pot dispensary without ventilation — “it’s just kids being kids”…makes sense…
Makes sense — that is if the game is 10–0 and its September and Fernando Valenzuela just beaned Will Clark in the previous inning.
I can see a grizzled Roger Craig whispering in the ear, “go get them, tiger” and the plan is hatched, catcher warned, big dudes on the ready in the bullpen.
But this was not that. From all evidence, Strickland’s act was a rather rogue one. A man with a mission while his woeful Giants, full of sputtering machinery this spring and playing footsy with the Padres around the cellar door, trailed 3–0 in the 7th inning. I get the feeling it was not going to matter if it was game 7 of the league championship. The deed was going to get done.
And it did. Forget the score. Bryce Harper got struck and wanted to battle. What amazed me more than the pitch was Strickland’s reaction after the battle had subsided. Strickland wanted another piece of him. His teammates holding him back the way burly linebackers hold up fullbacks at the goal line. What does this reaction mean to the casual observer? It means this shit has been stirring in him for 2.5 years.
I get it and am not here to say what he did was inconsistent with how most humans may react when upstaged. But, consequences are part of every action. A teammate ended up on the disabled list, his six-game suspension will hurt the Giants in a very critical stretch and most importantly for Strickland, he will have to don the reputation of a lonely, revengeful pitcher — while his teammates and manager seem to want to look the other way.
