Yadier Molina’s meltdown and Tony LaRussa

Let me first say that I don’t have a problem with Yadier Molina.  I think Molina is one of the best, if not the best catchers in the Majors today.  I have mostly positive things to say about him except for now.  Molina’s meltdown at the plate last night after striking out has to be one of the most embarrassing overreactions I have seen from a player in quite sometime.  Molina clearly took a pitch that was in the strike zone (from my point of view anyway), a pitch he should have at least attempted to swing at and not take. Home plate umpire Rob Drake was calling the inside pitch all night long, and yet Molina thought this one pitch, a pitch that frankly was way too close to take, was a ball?  Are you serious Yadier?  Getting on Drake’s face and barking at him wasn’t going to change things either.  And the fact that spit flew out of his mouth and onto Drake’s face really makes Molina look bad. Whether or not Molina spat at Drake intentionally is irrelevant, as spit clearly landed on the umpire’s face.  Molina should face a stiff suspension in my opinion.

As for Tony LaRussa, I really hope the Commissioner heard what the Cardinals skipper had to say after the game.  The fact that LaRussa admitted what most of us knew about him is refreshing, but the League now has to step in and reign in this mad-man before someone ends up injured or dead.  LaRussa has been known for years to take exception to the location of an inside pitch, any inside pitch, that is above the letters.  The intent of the pitcher is of no concern to the Cardinals’ manager; what bothers him the most is the location of the pitch.  So no one should have been surprised that LaRussa was upset with Takashi Saito’s pitch that hit Albert Pujols.   Anyone watching the game last night, however, knows that Saito wasn’t throwing at Pujols intentionally when the Cardinals slugger was hit by the pitch.  Yet the location of the pitch in LaRussa’s mind required retaliation, retaliation that came when Ryan Braun was plunked by Cardinals reliever Jason Motte.  It’s necessary, I believe, that the League sends LaRussa a message of its own and suspend the Cardinals manager.