Prince Fielder has a welt on his thigh and the burly Brewer wants to mess you up.
You, meaning Dodgers reliever Guillermo Mota who threw, oh, pretty inside to the young star.
Mota would have been part of a baseball throw down had Fielder not been stopped by security and his teammates, as he tried to enter the Dodgers clubhouse Tuesday night. It happened after the Brewers fell to the Dodgers 17-4.
There are always surreal moments in baseball and this goes on the very long list.
Hitters today appear more defensive about being thrown inside to and it's a hotly-debated issue. If we're talking about headhunting, well then a line's been crossed. This is not the first time the Dodgers have been involved recently in a plunking controversy. Phillies OF Shane Victorino pointed out in the NLCS, that Hideki Koroda throwing at his ribs was fine, his head was off limits. And he literally pointed. Showing Koroda what was permissible and what wasn't.
But Mota wasn't headhunting. He was...thigh hunting? His pitch was within the limits of fairness and courtesy. It was retaliation done politely.
Fielder, 25, is growing up in baseball at a time when the personal codes of conduct on the field seem to be changing. Call me crazy, but are there less bench clearing brawls now? Not that I'm a fan of violence on the field, but, gee whiz, once in awhile I'd like to see some fired up players go at it. Sometimes a team needs to wake up a little and that's always a good way.
In a sense, Fielder may have been doing just that. Perhaps it was a call to arms, or runs for that matter. If his team saw him like that, it certainly puts him in a leadership role and earns their respect. If Mota, who was ejected, was protecting, Fielder was preparing for battle.
But the code of conduct for plunking is also getting blurry. Brewers manager Ken Macha said post-game that the game needs to clean itself up of the practice and allowing players to think it's acceptable.
To hit or not to hit? From everything I've learned all my life, location is key.
Though it's usually a negative, in baseball, hitting below the belt is considered fair play.