Chris Martin Whining About Brewers Bunting is What's Wrong with Baseball

Only in baseball could there be a benches-clearing brawl sparked by a completely legal and legitimate play.

Sunday's 2-1 Red Sox win over the Milwaukee Brewers was interrupted by a skirmish after the top of the 7th inning, which seemed to end harmlessly when Christian Yelich tapped out to first base.

The tensions began to boil over after Red Sox pitcher Chris Martin, who had been covering first on the play, had words with Brewers 1B coach Quintin Berry, who spent one year with Boston during a journeyman career. Apparently he was talking to himself, but clearly loud enough and in a pointed enough manner that Berry took offense to it and chaos ensued.

Like most baseball dustups, it was much ado about nothing. The bullpens got a little cardio in, but there were no punches thrown and no ejections.

So What Was It All About?

According to Martin, who spoke about the “fight” during his postgame media session, he took offense to being bunted on: "Heat of the moment. They bunted twice. You see they bunted there at the end of the game. I didn't like it. I know it's part of the game. ... I let 'em know. In this league, swing the bat."

Let me direct my response directly to Chris "Big Rig" Martin: Shut up and get over it.

Martin clearly believes that, for whatever reason, he is entitled to the protection of an unwritten rule that would prevent players from bunting against him or in the situation in which he is pitching.
He is the problem with Major League Baseball. The game is working hard to overcome the kind of Neanderthalic thinking that people like him can’t seem to let go, and stuff like this is the opposite of help.

The fact that a major league pitcher is complaining about guys on the other team trying to get on base (AKA their job) is laughable, if not infuriating.

To wit, I would say that the scenario in which Martin entered the game is the optimal time for a team to execute a bunt. It’s a 1-1 ballgame. Clearly runs have been hard to come by this afternoon. Seems like a good strategy to try to play some small ball and manufacture a run. 

Oh, no, sorry guys. Chris says he doesn’t like you to play that way. He wants to only play the way he wants to play.

It reminds me of the rules my four-year-old daughter might insist on.

Martin made himself feel better by calling it “a compliment” that they bunted against him because “maybe they don’t think they can get a hit.” Yeah, Chris, that’s kind of the idea.

In “this league”, guys have enough skill to put the ball in play in other ways. Sorry you have to field your position for one inning every 3-5 days. Hope the $7.5 million you’re getting to throw 50 innings a season will bring you solace in this time of great angst.

Think of this incident in the context of other sports

“Guys we’re bringing in a new goalie, but he doesn’t like it when you take slap shots, so if you could just keep it to wristers we won’t have any beef.”....“We don’t like it when you do slam dunks on us. I know it’s part of the game, but I feel like, in this league, shoot the ball.”

Give me a break. That sort of thing would never fly. Neither should this.

It's the hitter's job to try to reach base, any way they can. It's Martin's job to stop them. Put aside the fact that this was not a no-hitter broken up by a bunt single (an unwritten rule I also wholeheartedly disagree with but can at least see the logic behind), Martin doesn't have a leg to stand on.

His comments are selfish, whiney, tone deaf, and reminiscent of the baseball culture that nearly killed the sport over the past decade. I'd like to see manager Alex Cora and the Red Sox organization distance themselves from his opinions on this matter.

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