From the Sidelines: Fighting for the inside of the plate

JIM BOURG/NEWSMAKERS Pedro Martinez (left) has come high and inside on many a hitter in an attempt to reclaim the inside corner.

Baseball has become, in essence, a real-life Nintendo game, with home run records falling by the wayside every day. I won't go over this ground too carefully, because it's been trodden many times before, but when you have guys like Richard Hidalgo hitting 40 bombs in a season, you know something's not right. Hell, give me a 33-ounce bat and throw Jose Lima up there on the mound and I could probably hit 40 homers.

As the carnage increases, more and more hitters are crowding the plate. Part of the reason Everett is enjoying such a monster season is because it is literally impossible to pitch him inside. If you've ever watched the Red Sox on TV, you've probably seen Everett's pre-batting routine: he strolls up to the plate and very deliberately proceeds to rub out the inside line of the batter's box, and then sets up with his right foot completely across that line, practically touching the plate (Everett's a switch-hitter, but he places his right foot near the plate whether he's batting lefty or righty). The result is that even the most accurate pitchers cannot sneak anything past Everett on the inside corner; he has basically erased half of home plate and, consequently, half of the strike zone.

The rulebook states clearly that you cannot hit a pitch while outside the batter's box, and Everett is always outside (that is, past the inside line) of the box. In late August, in an interleague game against the Mets, Mike Piazza pointed Everett's foot out to the home plate umpire, who subsequently redrew the line that Everett had erased. Everett set up illegally yet again, forcing the umpire to redraw the line once more. Everett then began to jaw at the umpire, eventually getting himself ejected, and then went completely ballistic and head-butted the ump, an action that earned him a 10-game suspension and augmented his already well-deserved reputation for being an utter ass.

COURTESY CNNSI Martinez's teammate Carl Everett was at the center of an ugly confrontation earlier this summer over alleged plate crowding.

In a sense, Everett's outburst, while uncalled for, is nonetheless understandable. For more than half the season, Everett had been setting up the same way, and the umpires had never made a move. I could devote an entire column to the failures of umpires to enforce rules consistently and fairly. But the point is that Everett acted as though the inside of the plate somehow belonged to him.

Gerald Williams did the same thing, in essence, when Pedro Martinez hit him in the hand a few weeks ago. Glaring at Pedro as he walked to first, Williams eventually charged the mound, instigating a brutal brawl. I have no lost love for Martinez, who has hit an astonishing 14 batters this season against only 27 walks (that's not a typo). But Williams, like other hitters who hang all over the plate, should be willing to get plunked every now and then. You can't have it both ways. Hitters are getting too arrogant for their own good, and pitchers are starting to fight back. Establishing the inside corner is vital to being an effective pitcher; do you think it's a coincidence that Pedro has hit so many batters?

I'm not condoning Pedro's actions, but it's hard not to sympathize. Hitters can't have their cake and eat it too. If players like Everett and Williams are going to stand on top of home plate, then they better have the cojones to face the music, whether it be that of an umpire's call or a high-and-inside fastball. Pitchers should be allowed to take back what's theirs: the strike zone. In the meantime, Carl Everett better thank his guardian angel that Pedro Martinez is his teammate.

Back to Sports...