Morgan Was Right to Charge The Mound

September 3, 2010 – Michael Cahill

So let me get this straight: Morgan gets to home by taking out a catcher a couple of nights ago and the Marlins aren’t real happy about it. So they plunk the Morgan the next change they get and he goes to first base without so much as a word? Then after that Morgan, who is a great base stealer takes the free pass to first as a great opportunity to steal 2nd. And 3rd. Then he goes up to bat later and they throw behind him? Sounds like it was a little sour grapes by the Marlins if you ask me.

Look, I’m okay with the rule that if you take out the catcher and it wasn’t warranted then you are going to eat dust the next time you get up to the plate. It’s been done over and over and if Morgan didn’t understand that then he should have been educated on it. But as it turns out Morgan seemed to understand the rules because when he was drilled he walked quietly to first base.

But here’s the thing that the Marlins forget is there is another rule of baseball: if you put a great base stealer on base he will steal a base regardless of how he got there. Was he supposed to wait there to be doubled up or wait for the inning to end? Was his team not down by 11 runs at the time? Was it his job to respect the rules of the game to the point where it hurts his own team? I wish I could see the Marlins point of view in this but it appears they didn’t have a good one. They were pissed because they hit the one guy they don’t want on the basepaths. It’s the nature of the beast. If you throw a fastball down the middle to Pujols he will make you pay. If you put Morgan on the bases he will steal them. It’s pretty simple. It’s too bad no one educated the Marlins on how baseball is played.