F@&$ You Matt Holliday

So, I don’t want rival teams to like each other. Maybe it’s the neanderthal, meathead fan in me that wants the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, or Chicago Cubs and the St Louis Cardinals to want to absolutely despise everything about the other team. The watered down rivalries that we’ve seen over the past 15 or so years has a disappointment for meathead fans everywhere.

I’ll also admit to be old school when it comes to pitching inside, and even hitting a batter from time-to-time. While I don’t encourage headhunting, I don’t have an issue with hitting a butt or two if hitters are showing up a pitcher, or stealing signs, or breaking other unwritten rules of the game.

This gets me to Matt Holliday, and the 94-MPH fastball which broke his thumb in the 11th inning of the Cubs and Cardinals marathon on Thursday evening. Unfortunate, untimely, and definitely not a purpose pitch. However Matt disagrees with me.

After a teammate Aledmys Diaz landed on the disabled list after getting hit by a pitch, Holliday mentioned the high inside pitch is dangerous. He reiterated those thoughts Thursday, while also hinting that it could have been on purpose.

This is a guy that is considered dirty as they come.

That was the Matt Holliday that was telling the baseball world the dangers of pitching inside. The Matt Holliday that is worried about the careers of players due to high, tight pitches.

While it’s questionable if Holliday was really calling it a purpose pitch, what I’m mostly upset about is his sudden white Knight defense of fairness and safety in the game. When you almost break off Marco Scutaro’s legs on a slide that didn’t start until he was on top of second base, you don’t get the luxury of attempting to clean the game up.

Then there are the self-proclaimed so-called, “smartest and best fans in baseball,” jumping on the “he was hit on purpose bandwagon.”

@LinBrehmer @LenKasper Great stuff. I'll be disappointed if a #Cubs is deliberately hit, since it was obvious Holliday wasn't hit on purpose

— Scott Lindholm (@ScottLindholm) August 12, 2016

One, why would the Cubs hit Holliday on purpose in that situation? 11th inning of a tied game, it would put the winning (or go-ahead) run on base. That’d be dumb baseball. While Joe Maddon will do some pretty unconventional things from time-to-time, attempting to lose a game isn’t really his M.O. Also, the Cubs are on the verge of closing out the division. While there is still a lot of baseball to be played, a 12-game lead the Cardinals that could be 16 by the end of the weekend would have ended their hopes of a late season run at the Central title.

Someone on the Cubs is gonna get beaned today, because Montgomery totally hit Holliday on purpose in extra innings last night.

— D.E. Smith (@desmith80) August 12, 2016

And this is why that thought is scarey.

Have to retaliate tomorrow. Bryant or Rizzo needs to be drilled.

— D K (@dosSteckis) August 12, 2016

The horrible part about this is, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny is just dumb enough to do this too.

I’d really hate to see this series turn into a beanbags war which ends up with suspensions and/or more guys ending up on the DL. I say this because if Matheny starts ordering guys to be plunked, Maddon isn’t going to sit on his hands.

*Photo copyright Getty Images

Jamie Baker

Hi, I’m Jamie and I run this site. I’ve published work on multiple other sites and through that experience I decided to create CHICAGO style SPORTS. We truly aim to speak for the Chicago fan. Additionally, as a member of the IBWAA (Internet Baseball Writers Association of America) you can be assured that all content you read will be written with incredible integrity.

See author's posts