Spring Fling, II

Here are a couple of notes to put the "bean ball" in perspective:

- First, Vlad Guerrero's manager, Frank Robinson, tries to defend the saturnine superstar:

Expos manager Frank Robinson was surprised Guerrero rushed the mound, but he understood why.

"After watching it last year, I think pitchers take their liberties," Robinson said. "The pitcher thinks, 'I'll go inside and if I hit him, I hit him. If he's hurt, he's out of the lineup, and we have a better chance of winning.' "

Guerrero was hit by a pitch just six times last year, 15 behind the league leader.

- Second, in the Phillies-Astros game yesterday, Kevin Millwood plunked Jeff Kent on the helmet and yet no one felt compelled to charge the mound, gesticulate wildly, or retaliate against Jim Thome. And unlike Guerrero's HBP it actually was in the "head area".

Millwood had this to say:

``It was a bad curve ball, it just came out bad,'' Millwood said. ``I think he kind of dove in on it. I think he might have gotten mad. If you get hit you are going to be mad.''

Quite succinct. Crash Davis would be proud.

Of course, Millwood had said earlier that Richard Hidalgo's home run pitch had been "the only bad mistake [he] made all day." So was the Kent dinger a goodmistake?

- Finally, Jose Mesa wants to kill former teammate Omar Vizquel for the things Vizquel wrote in his unnecessary autobiography. Let's listen in:

"I will not forgive him. Even my little boy (Jose Jr.) told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him."

Ah, isn' that special? The family that beans together... Isn't this more worthy of a fine then David Wells discussing his blood-alcohol level on pitching days?

Besides when did Mesa become a literary critic? I mean, I don't know what Vizquel got for the autobiography, but he should have gotten life. But does that mean that he deserves to get knocked down every time he bats?

"If he comes to apologize, I will punch him right in the face. And then I'll kill him. If you're a writer and you want to write a good book, you don't write a story about somebody else."

First, he's gonna s--t and then he's gonna kill him, or words to that affect. As far as good writers not writing stories about somebody else, I guess that Shakespeare guy had it all wrong.