There has been much made of Nyjer Morgan this week .  He took out a catcher that didn’t have the ball, and still failed to tag the plate. He hit another catcher later in the week, who did have the ball and managed to score, though that catcher was injured on the play.  Later in the series, he was hit by a pitch for hurting the catcher, and he stole a base, and another against the Marlins when his team was losing by 11 runs.

I can’t speak to what was going on in his head for the first of those two incidents.  But, I have never heard of a team not being allowed to steal when they are losing by 10 runs.  It is unsportsmanlike to steal if your team is winning by 10 runs, but why would trying to make something happen on the basepaths when down by 10 runs be wrong?  Especially, after the pitcher just hit him.  Is it because the pitcher threw at him for running into the catcher- he is supposed to take his punishment and stand on first and stop trying?

I am not trying to make Morgan any kind of martyr.  I think time will tell who he really is.

But, when I hear people talking about playing the game the right way, and then to say he shouldn’t have tried to steal two bases- well, I find that wrong.  Its his job, and the job of everyone on the team, to try to hammer away at the other team- and if he can steal two bases after being hit by a pitch, well he should.

Think Ty Cobb wouldn’t of stolen those bases? Ridiculous.