Congratulations, once again, to Charlie Manuel and the Phillies

I'm on record as rooting for the Rays in this World Series, but at the same time, I couldn't be happier for Charlie Manuel. I certainly would not have predicted in mid-September that his Phillies would be the champs, given that they were still locked in a division race with the Mets.

Chase Utley made the defensive play of the series -- and one of the most savvy defensive plays I've ever seen -- in the seventh inning last night. With the score tied at 3 and Jason Bartlett on second, Akinori Iwamura hit a ground ball up the middle, and Utley fielded it behind second base. He faked a throw to first as Bartlett rounded third, then gunned Bartlett down at home. Absolutely brilliant. If Utley had actually thrown to first, Bartlett would certainly have scored; if he hadn't faked the throw, Bartlett wouldn't have even tried to score, so the Rays would have had first and third with two outs. Either way, the World Series might be headed back to Florida.

I liked what Fox did at the end of the game, when they had a camera trained on each of the Phillies' players on the field, and at least a few on the dugout. They then showed us the reactions from each of those corners at the moment Eric Hinske struck out on a Brad Lidge slider to make the Phillies the champs. Charlie was pretty reserved, but he was obviously thrilled as he shared a group hug with a few of his coaches before heading onto the field.

This was Philadelphia's first pro championship in any major sport since 1983, the year I turned 12. I'm still waiting for Cleveland's first in my lifetime. I'm happy for the Philly fans, but it does make me more than a bit envious.

Heavyweight slugfest goes Penn State's way

Ohio State battled a very strong Penn State team up until the final minute last night. And a Terrelle Pryor with another year's worth or so of experience might well have pulled out that game.

Color commentator (and Buckeye alum) Kirk Herbstreit felt Pryor was trying to make too much happen on the play in which he coughed up the ball in the fourth quarter, which the Nittany Lions recovered to set up the field goal that made the final score 13-6. Herbstreit felt that Pryor should have just taken the sneak inside and picked up the first down. No disrespect to Herbie, but I disagree. Pryor thought he saw an opening to the outside and would try to pick up a few extra yards -- which I applaud. His mistake was not carrying the ball more carefully.

Pryor did make a mistake -- albeit an understandable one -- on the throw that was intercepted in the end zone in the final minute. He threw what was essentially a Hail Mary, with 20-some seconds left on the clock. Keeping in mind that in college, a first down stops the clock until the chains are moved, Pryor had time to try to find somebody underneath and then run up and spike the ball. It's likely that it wouldn't have made much difference, but regardless, a more experienced quarterback probably gives his team a little bit better chance in that situation.

It should be said that the Buckeyes couldn't get anything going on the ground, which kept the pressure on Pryor. Beanie Wells picked up just 55 yards on 22 carries, and Pryor himself only got six yards with his legs, on nine totes.

The Penn State Nittany Lions now look pretty good to get to the national title game, and I'm rooting for them. It'd be neat to see Joe Paterno win another championship at age 81.

What a mess

I'm really not sure what to make of this Kellen Winslow Jr. situation. The sequence of events went something like this:

• Winslow spent a few days in the hospital with a staph infection.
• The Browns didn't want anybody to know what it was because they were gaining a reputation for spreading staph infections.
• The team didn't tell anybody and asked him not to tell anybody either.
• Everybody wondered what was wrong with Winslow, and people were filling in the blanks on their own. I actually heard someone speculate that he'd contracted a social disease.
• Winslow missed a game, which incidentally was the best game the Browns have played in years.
• Winslow got out of the hospital and played in the next game, which incidentally didn't go well at all for the Browns.
• Winslow complained after the game that he felt like a piece of meat, because Phil Savage never called him while he was in the hospital with a staph infection.
• Savage suspended Winslow for a game, without pay, for making comments that were "unwarranted, inappropriate, and unnecessarily disparaging to our organisation."
• Winslow appealed his suspension.

There seems to be a lot of blame to go around here. It's the ugly truth that professional athletes basically are pieces of meat. The teams really don't care about them as people; they only care about what they can do for them on the field of play. Winslow should know that. On the other hand, I can understand that it would be a bit frustrating to have people speculating about what's put you in the hospital, and to top it off, nobody from the team bothers to check in on you while you're in there. If LeBron James or Zydrunas Ilgauskas were in the hospital, I have to believe Danny Ferry would call to see how they were doing; ditto with Grady Sizemore and Mark Shapiro.

But there's a right way to do things, and there's a wrong way. Popping off publicly about how your GM behaved while you were in the hospital is the wrong way. Then again, suspending a player for popping off is probably not productive either.

What a mess.

World Series!

For the first time in probably decades, the World Series matches up two teams that, between them, have combined for exactly one WS title -- the Phillies, in 1980.

The Cinderella Rays finally finished off the Red Sox last night, in a game it seemed like you'd have had to be a little high to think they'd win, given Boston's recent history of coming back from big series deficits (including last year's heart theft against the Tribe). Matt Garza and the Rays' bullpen held the big Red Sox bats in check, and while things were touch and go there for a while in the eighth, rookie David Price -- a veteran of exactly seven major-league games, including this postseason -- came in and struck out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded to end the threat. Then he set them down in the ninth, stranding a lead-off walk, to give the Rays the American League pennant in their first above-.500 season in team history. Price had not even pitched professionally until May 22, but the boy's apparently got ice in his veins. He has no regular-season wins or saves, but he now has one of each in the postseason.

I'm looking forward to this World Series. I'll be rooting for Tampa, but the Phillies aren't exactly the Yankees. I'm glad one of these teams will be the new champions.

Too little, too late

The Browns offense that showed up in the fourth quarter of today's game against the Redskins looked a lot like the Browns offense that took the Giants to the woodshed on Monday night. The problem was that the Browns offense that laid an egg for the first three quarters looked more like the Browns offense that laid egg after egg for the first four games of the season.

The defense played pretty well, but predictably wore down after the offense failed to keep the defense off the field for most of the game.

I don't know what else needs to be said. The Browns are now 2-4, and this is shaping up as another lost season.

But hey, at least the Buckeyes are winning.

Hafner goes under the scope

So it seems the Indians "cleanup" hitter, Travis Hafner, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder yesterday. The procedure by Dr. James Andrews is described as a "debridement," or cleaning out, of his right shoulder joint. I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you that Hafner spent most of 2008 on the disabled list, and didn't do much when he did play (.197/5/24 in 198 at-bats). He was an absolute monster in 2006 (.308/42/117), but fell off precipitously in 2007 (.266/24/100).

The Indians say Hafner will be ready for opening day in 2009, but he will turn 32 on June 3 next year and will be coming off an injury-plagued year that was followed by arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Given that most hitters peak around age 27, I don't think Hafner will ever have another season like he had in 2006, when he was 29. In fact, I'll be surprised if Hafner's production in 2009 is as good as it was in 2007. I hope I'm wrong.

Well, what do you know?

When the Browns were 0-3, none of us could have possibly imagined this outcome tonight. And in fact, even when they were 1-3, with a win over the woeful Bengals, we all figured we were basically sacrificial lambs against the undefeated defending champion Giants tonight.

But the team that took the field tonight in the brown and orange was not the same team that took the field any of the previous four games. In fact, I can't swear it's even the same team that went 10-6 last year. This team tonight looked better than any Browns team has looked since ... well, the Modell era. I don't want to exaggerate, but that's how it feels right now. I just sat here and watched every play of this game, and I still can't believe what my own eyes beheld.

Derek Anderson is suddenly a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback again, thanks in part to great protection from the offensive line that previously looked so shabby. Jamal Lewis could get a first down any time he wanted. Braylon Edwards seemed like he was open by five yards at all times. And Eric Wright, for the second game in a row, made the play of the day. That 94-yard interception return not only featured a fantastic read on Eli Manning and an athletic move to step ahead of the receiver, but a tremendous return in which he eluded Manning's attempt to force him out of bounds and/or knock the ball loose. When Wright kick-stepped over the goal line, we all knew it was over.

Thirty-five to fourteen over the undefeated, seemingly invincible, Super Bowl champs. This was probably the most satisfying early-season Browns win of the expansion era. Savor it, ladies and gentlemen. I sure hope it's a sign of things to come.

Very interesting

Loyal reader John Arthur "Hutch" Hutchison sent me this link about all the necklaces you see hanging on ballplayers' chests these days. Honestly, I hadn't really noticed, but it turns out Randy Johnson's behind a lot of it. They're called "phitens," and supposedly, they confer some sort of benefit on the players who wear them. Sounds like a load of hogwash, but then again, that's what doctors used to think of hand washing. (P.S. Wednesday is Global Handwashing Day, so be sure to celebrate in appropriate style.)

I'll never forget the image of Carlos Baerga jogging onto and off of the field with his big ol' silver chain and pendant bouncing up and down between his chest and his face. I guess I always figured it was a Latin thing.

I'm pissed at Channel 8

Like most 21st-century Americans, I have cable. In my case, about 75% of the reason I have cable is for the sports you can only get on cable. So I'm paying to see tonight's Browns game, whether a local station picks it up or not. But I'd also like to be able to flip to the National League Championship Series during commercials. And I can't, because Fox is showing the NLCS, and Channel 8 bought the local over-the-air rights to tonight's game. The HD Fox channel also has the Browns. The Fox Spanish-language channel has the Phillies and Dodgers, but I'd have to pay extra for that channel. I love the Browns as much as anybody else, but I've already got ESPN. I want the local Fox station to show the damned baseball game that Fox is showing.

This sucks.

Defense, special teams do it for Buckeyes

The Ohio State offense did very little in Saturday's 16-3 win over Purdue, but it didn't need to, thanks to Malcolm Jenkins and his defensive cohorts. Jenkins blocked a punt that Etienne Sabino (of whom I'd never heard) returned for a touchdown, and later added an interception that any one of four Buckeyes could have had.

Terrelle Pryor and the Buckeye O only gained 222 yards on the day, to Purdue's 298 yards; and only managed 14 first downs, to Purdue's 18. They didn't score an offensive touchdown, but did set up three field goals, which adds up to three times as many points as the Boilermakers' offense managed. The OSU D was impressive, keeping Purdue from getting inside the 30 until the last half-minute of the game.

Pryor, quite simply, struggled. He tried to do too much with his legs, which turned a couple of small gains into big losses. I recall one play in particular in the third quarter, in which Pryor faked a handoff to Beanie Wells and then took it off-tackle himself. First off, if he'd actually given the ball to Wells, he'd have had about a 10-foot hole to run through, and would have probably picked up at least 10 or 15 yards. I accept that if the play calls for a fake, you can't just give the back the ball, because he's not expecting it; but Pryor could have seen the soft spot in the defense and called an audible. Maybe that's too much to ask of a freshman quarterback. Anyway, once Pryor took the ball, it looked like he could have made about three or four yards if he'd cut up the field early, but instead he tried to cut it outside and wound up losing a couple of yards. But he's learning, he's obviously got a lot of talent, and the most important thing was the W.

Brett Myers the hitter

Just a few days ago, I posted something about Brett Myers, a career .116 hitter, battling CC Sabathia until he wore CC out in the NLDS. Myers fouled off three pitches before Sabathia walked him. It seemed like Sabathia must have lost something, for a poor-hitting pitcher to battle him like that. Myers only had four hits all season, after all. Who could have known he was just finding his stroke?

Myers had three hits in today's 8-5 win over the Dodgers. If he'd pitched better, he might have gotten a fourth at-bat and could have, in one game, matched his hit total for the entire regular season. He scored two runs and knocked in three -- the latter number of which, you may note, was the margin of victory.

Our old friend Charlie Manuel managed the Phillies' win just hours after the death of his mother. According to Joe Torre, Charlie still talked to his mother "on a regular basis." I can't imagine anybody not talking to their mother on a regular basis, unless she's mental or something, but it had to be tough for Charlie to put that out of his mind. He didn't talk to reporters today, which is certainly understandable. You're in our thoughts, Charlie. (I'm sure he's a regular reader.)

Speaking of people with Cleveland connections, Manny Ramirez hit his 27th career postseason home run in a losing cause. Of course, Manny has played in four World Series, two each with the Indians and Red Sox; and since 1995, his team has reached the playoffs every year but two. And you can't compare players from pre-1969, who never played in more than one round of the postseason, with players of today, who play in up to three rounds a year. Still, it's an impressive number. And here's an arcane stat: Manny now has 27 career LCS RBIs, which ties him for second all-time with former Tribe teammate David Justice. I have no comment on that.

Great game to open NLCS

These days, I'm not usually up this late on a school night, but I'm starting to get LCS fever. That's pretty corny, isn't it? Whaddaya want, I've been up since 6, and I'll be up at 6 tomorrow too.

Anyway, tonight's game between the Dodgers and Phillies was a minor classic. Cole Hamels was shaky early, but settled in; Derek Lowe was lights-out early, but lost it in the sixth, when he gave up home runs to Chase Utley and Pat Burrell. Thanks to ESPN's Jayson Stark, I now know that before Lowe gave up those two home runs in the space of three hitters, he had only given up two home runs to his previous 287 hitters.

So the Phillies have taken the lead, but apparently because of the matchups involved, a Diamond Mind simulation still thinks the Dodgers are slight favorites. Whatever. Such projections are fun, but who remembers them after the games are played?

There is NOTHING on

Last night, I watched no sports at all. Tonight, I'm watching Wisconsin at Northwestern in volleyball.

During the NBA playoffs, if both teams that are moving on to the next series against each other end their series early, the next series starts early. Why doesn't Major League Baseball do that? Easy. Major League Baseball is run by idiots. I'm looking at you, Allan H. Selig.

Buckeyes pulled it out

By halftime of yesterday's game against Wisconsin, one started to get the feeling that the Buckeyes didn't belong on the same field as the Badgers -- but even still, Wisconsin was only up 10-7. If the first half had been 30 minutes and 30 seconds rather than 30:00, it might well have been 14-7, but then again, if it were 29:30, it might well have remained tied at 7. Regardless, it was starting to feel like the Dairyheads were on their way to take us to the woodshed at Camp Randall Stadium, where Wisconsin had a 16-game winning streak.

But Terrelle Pryor, making his second start, started to put it together in the second half. He was far from perfect, but between his arm and his legs, he was the main reason Ohio State won that game. Sure, there was some good luck involved -- Brian Hartline's fumble bouncing directly to Brian Robiskie, for example -- but give Pryor credit. On the 11-yard touchdown run that put the Buckeyes ahead for good, Pryor recognized that four Wisconsin defenders were in confusion mode as the ball was snapped, and he ran it to the spot they didn't have covered.

These Buckeyes are the favorites for the Big Ten title, and I think we saw why. And darned if Terrelle Pryor didn't remind me just a little bit of a guy named Craig Krenzel yesterday.

CC's outing looked familiar

Well, folks, it seems CC Sabathia's playoff mental block is still there -- and as a result, he may have pitched his last for the Milwaukee Brewers. And he probably cost himself several million dollars.

As we Clevelanders all remember, if Sabathia had pitched well in the 2007 postseason, they Indians might have won the World Series. Going into tonight's game, the Brewers were in even more desperate need of a great start from their ace than the Indians were last year. But he laid yet another egg.

Before I go any further along these lines, let me say that Sabathia's failure in tonight's game brings me no pleasure. CC seems like a genuinely good guy and good teammate, and I have no doubt he wants to succeed for his team. I bear him no grudge. And there is absolutely no question that without him, the Brew Crew would have ended their season on Sunday, as the Indians and 21 other teams did.

But the man has obviously developed some sort of psychological trouble with pitching in October. He went just 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on six hits and four walks. Those runs all came in the second inning, when he gave up an RBI double to Pedro Feliz (aka Peter Happy) and a grand slam to Shane Victorino. One of the runners who scored on Victorino's blow was the opposing pitcher, Brett Myers, who hit .069 this year, and whom Sabathia walked. Myers actually managed to foul off three pitches during the plate appearance. When CC was pulled with two outs in the fourth, it was after having walked the last two hitters to load the bases.

One more loss to the Phillies, and the Beermakers are done. And CC's erratic performance will be one of the reasons why. I'd say I feel for the guy, but he's probably about to sign a contract worth at least $80 million. Some teams might shy away, based on his playoff performance, but someone's still going to drive a truckload of money up to his door. So yeah, he's undoubtedly having a worse night than I am, but I have a hunch he'll be OK.

A win! Hallelujah!

So the Browns finally put an actual number in the win column. I know that zero is technically a number, but you know what I mean. For the first time in eight games, including preseason, our team sucked less than the other team with whom they shared the field. Said other team, in this case the winless Cincinnati Bengals, were playing without their Pro Bowl quarterback, which clearly made a big difference in the Browns' 20-12 victory. But hey, a win's a win.

The Browns' defense played pretty well -- albeit, as previously mentioned, against a crippled Bengals O -- but our offense was pitiful until the fourth quarter. Derek Anderson, who was such a sensation last year, was 8-for-16 for just 72 yards going into the final frame, with a pick, which was pretty typical of his performance thus far this year. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking it was time to give Brady Quinn a shot. But as the Browns languished with a 6-3 deficit, D.A. finally turned it around. He went 7-for-8 in the last 15 minutes, for 66 yards and a touchdown, and led three scoring drives.

Jamal Lewis ran the ball 25 times, which worked pretty well until the last two plays of the first drive. Once the Bengals realized the Browns were just going to try to stuff it down their throats, they were able to hold the running game in check. Lewis only had 79 yards on those 25 carries, which is a 3.2 average per rush.

The star of the game? Ask me, it's DB Mike Adams, who got an interception and recovered a fumble.

CC wouldn't have gotten Tribe into the playoffs

Loyal Of Fair Hooker reader Jeff Brown weighs in with a theory that Mark Shapiro might have jumped the gun on trading CC Sabathia:

The Indians' cataclysmic season now shows them just 6 games out of first place. After being eliminated ages ago, they have been showing how good of a team they could have been (should have been?) all along.

Think for a moment, Steve -- they traded away C.C. Sabathia very early in the trading period, and if they had kept him, would he have been worth an additional 6 wins? 5? 4? Given the way he pitched in July and August, I surely think so. One has to second-guess GM Shapiro's decision to trade all of their players away, given that they could have made the playoffs in spite of their early-season struggles. Do you agree?

Well, let's take an objective look at that question. It's true that, had the Tribe held on to CC, and had he pitched as well for them as he has for the Brewers, they would likely have won at least a few more games. But it's hard for any player, no matter how well he plays, to make a six-game difference for his team.

Yes, CC has gone 10-2 (pending today's game) for the Beermakers, but before we go any further with those numbers, we must remember that he has done that in the National League, and these days, the senior circuit is clearly the junior varsity. The American League went 149-102 against the NL this year, a .594 winning percentage. That would work out to a 96-66 record over a 162-game season. Translate Carsten's 10-2 into AL numbers, and it's more like 8-4. (10-2 is a winning percentage of .833. If you multiply that by the baseline .500, divide by .594 and multiply again by 12, you come out with 8.4 wins.) CC would likely have taken most of the starts made by Zach Jackson and Anthony Reyes, who have combined for a 4-4 record. So that wouldn't have made a six-game difference. At most, that's a four-game difference, but 8-4 isn't really four games better than 4-4. If an 8-4 team were in the same division as a 4-4 team, they'd be considered two games ahead. And yes, pitcher wins and losses are overrated, but if you look at the underlying numbers, I think that's a reasonable approximation.

Naturally, it's worth mentioning that CC was not the only player the Indians traded. Paul Byrd has gone 5-2 for Boston since being traded for a few steak dinners, and Casey Blake is hitting .254 with 10 home runs since being traded to the Dodgers. It's hard to say whose starts Byrd would have taken, but we know whose at-bats Blake would have taken. Andy Marte has improved since the trade, hitting .250 in August and .297 in September, but with no power; and he's a .221 hitter for the season.

Byrd, I suppose, would have made some of the starts that were actually made by Scott Lewis (who won ALL FOUR of his starts) and Matt Ginter (1-3). So they combined for 5-3, compared to Byrd's 5-2. That's pretty much a wash. Blake probably would have made about one game's difference (keeping in mind his NL stats are NL stats), and CC would have made probably about two games' difference. Add all those numbers up, and we'd be looking at maybe an 84-77 team going into the last day of the season. We'd still be shut out of the playoffs.

Twins have it taking place

I'm blogging from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where there is a nursing convention going on (I'm editor of a nursing magazine), and where I watched the end of the last two nights' games between the Twins and White Sox in sports bars, surrounded by Twins fans. I'd have watched the games in my hotel room, except the TV in here doesn't get FSN North, which was carrying them. And what thrillers they were! Lexi Casilla got the game-winning hit last night, but Carlos Gomez was the hero of the series, making fantastic catches in the late innings in high-pressure situations both Wednesday and Thursday nights.

There's something slightly surreal about being in the presence of fans of a team foreign to you, who are celebrating a big victory by their team. I've been rooting for the Twins to win the AL Central ever since it became apparent that it was coming down to them and the White Sox, but not like I've been rooting for the Rays to make the playoffs. For a while, I was hoping the Twins AND White Sox would reach the playoffs at Boston's expense, but that's obviously not going to happen. Anyway, the White Sox just won it all three years ago, and Chicago is one of my least-favorite cities, even though I have dear friends there. I'm a country boy from Newbury, in Geauga County, and I just don't like being in the midst of that many millions of people crammed into that small a plat of land.

All that said, I have nothing much against the White Sox. And while I'm generally rooting for the Twins, I was watching last night's nailbiter as a more or less impartial observer, surrounded by people who were hanging on every pitch because they so desperately want their team to win the division. I know that feeling, of course; I'm just not used to not sharing it with the people around me. I'm not sure quite how I feel about it, but I'm on my way to another sports bar to watch the Twins battle the Royals tonight, surrounded by Twins fans. I look forward to it.

How about those Cleveland Indians!

In theory, I should have posted something about the Browns' debacle in Baltimore by now. But I don't feel like it. It sucked. What can I tell you that you don't already know about it?

I'd much rather post about the Indians, who have won seven straight and are now 79-77. Our Tribe's been out of contention for months now, but they've still got six games to play, and I'm still excited about seeing how they do in those games. And their 4-3 win tonight over the Red Sox increased the Rays' lead in the East, which makes me happy too. If nothing else, it might mean one fewer October game at Fenway, and those people piss me off, Jimmy Fallon notwithstanding.

Zach Jackson got his first win as an Indian, in his eighth start, and he did a yeoman's job, holding the mighty BoSox to two runs in six innings before turning it over to the bullpen. Los Dos Rafael made it interesting, letting Boston get within one run before Jensen Lewis took over in the ninth. Lewis didn't exactly mow them down, but with the tying run at third and the winning run at second, he blew a fastball past Jed Lowrie to end the game. That's the sort of thing you expect from a major-league closer -- and with 12 saves in 13 opportunities, Jensen Lewis is now a bona fide major-league closer.

This is a very likable Indians team. It's too bad they hit such a wall in May and June, because if they were to get into the postseason, they could do some damage. Regardless, there's hope for next year.

Gary Sheffield is an idiot

Everybody knows it hurts to get hit by a baseball. I've been hit on the elbow, the knee, the thigh, the ribs, the nose ... everywhere. It hurts, and what's more, it can injure you. But that's the risk you take stepping into a batter's box. In order to get batters out, pitchers have to throw the ball at high velocity to a spot very close to the batter's body. The batter has a split second to decide whether to swing at the ball, then actually swing, if he so chooses. John Kruk against Randy Johnson in the All-Star Game notwithstanding, the batter is generally not thinking about having to get out of the way of the ball until it's nearly on top of him. This means the pitch is occasionally going to hit the batter. Everyone understands this.

When Fausto Carmona hit Gary Sheffield on his back forearm with a pitch in the Indians' 6-5 win over the Tigers Friday night, Sheffield got the idea that Carmona had "absolutely" (Sheffield's word) hit him on purpose, despite the fact that it was a breaking ball, despite the fact that it wasn't that far inside, and despite the fact that it was an 0-1 count. He didn't charge the mound right away; he waited until after Carmona had thrown over to first to keep him close. Sheffield yelled something to Carmona, Carmona apparently gestured in reply, and Sheffield decided to start a bench-clearing brawl.

Naturally, Sheffield was ejected. I thought Carmona probably would be too, even though he didn't do anything but defend himself; and I was right. Victor Martinez, who was also trying to defend his pitcher, got thrown out as well, as did the Tigers' Placido Polanco. I didn't really see what Polanco did to get tossed, but I think it's a crock that the two Indians were ejected. I'm reminded of the time Robin Ventura charged the mound after an inside pitch by Nolan Ryan, and Ryan got in five punches to the face before they were pulled apart. Ryan wasn't ejected, wasn't suspended, wasn't disciplined in any way, because it was understood that if an opposing player comes out trying to perpetrate acts of violence against the pitcher, the pitcher has the right to defend himself. I don't see how this situation's any different. If the umpires thought Fausto threw at Sheffield, they should have tossed him after the pitch; so he was obviously ejected for his role in the brawl. I'm sorry, but I think that's dumb. Carmona got some punches in, but Sheffield started it.