Where's Your Head?

I'm 20 minutes into an episode of "Sportscenter," and already, I've seen two baseball players get hit in the head by pitches. One of them, David Wright, was taken to the hospital for overnight observation, although both seem as though they're going to be fine.

So, we can all agree that getting hit in the head by a 96-mph fastball is dangerous, right? Then I will never understand the defense for what Johan Santana did. After his teammate was hit in the head, no doubt unintentionally, by Matt Cain, he threw behind one Giant and, when he missed that target, hit another.

"I feel like I have to protect my teammates," Santana said. "You call it whatever you want. There's no question. We do this thing together. I'm going to protect them the same way they protect me."

That's Johan Santana, admitting that he just committed what would be assault, if it had taken place anyplace other than a baseball field. After he just saw his teammate lying on the field for several chilling minutes before being taken to an ambulance, he thought the situation dictated that he do the same.

I'm unclear on how exactly this protects his teammates. The implication, I suppose, is that wanton Giants pitchers will be firing fastballs at Mets hitters all day unless Santana steps up and restores order by plunking someone. I had no idea the Giants were such a menace to society, but if they are, it's not Santana's problem, and all he's done is put more players at risk to injury.

Obviously, this happens so often that it's completely unfair to single out Santana. In a recent Red Sox game, the color commentator (I believe it was Eckersley at the time, although they rotate in Remy's absence so it may not have been) argued that, if you give up a home run and then decide to hit the next batter intentionally, "that's how it goes." So, for those keeping track at home, in addition to threatening the safety of your opponents if they accidentally hit your player, you can also do it if you're just having a bad day. It's open season, really.

As I mentioned before, I've never heard a convincing argument for why hurting your opponents is okay. If it were, I feel like they might have taught it to us in Little League at some point, but all I remember is being told to shake my opponents' hands after every game. In fact, the only argument I've ever heard ballplayers make in favor of such behavior amounts to little more than macho chauvinism--baseball is war, protect your brothers, etc. etc. I've never heard any concrete reasons why hitting your opponents would help, but I've got a couple of concrete reasons why it might hurt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Chapman (who, coincidentally, died 89 years ago tomorrow)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Conigliaro

Of course, neither of those were on intentional HBP's. But if pitchers keep going like this, someone will be seriously hurt someday. I'd love to see who still stands up and defends the behavior then.