The one thing I still don’t understand is how the St. Louis Cardinals announcers and a lot of their fans are trying to somehow argue that Miles Mikolas was justified in hitting Ian Happ because it was payback for, let me check my notes…accidentally hitting Willson Contreras with a backswing, apologizing to him and giving the catcher a hug as he walked off the field.
It was a crappy situation for the Cardinals no doubt, as the backswing caused a cut on the right side of Contreras’ head and the team’s trainer wasn’t able to stop the bleeding. In the first inning of the opening game of a four-game series, the Cardinals lost their starting catcher and then Mikolas tried to get revenge. It took the right-handed pitcher two attempts to hit Happ, as the 2-1 pitch missed up and in before throwing at Happ’s ass on the next delivery.
Again, in the minds of both the Cardinals TV and radio booths, it was completely fine for Mikolas to hit Happ on purpose because of his backswing. They completely lost it after Mikolas was ejected.
Here’s Chip Caray and Brad Thompson on the TV call.
Here’s the call from the Cardinals radio duo of John Rooney and Rick Horton below the TV clip of Cubs announcers Jon Sciambi and Jim Deshaies.
Cardinals broadcasts acting like players can do whatever they want, whenever they want without any consequences. Like the radio analyst said, everyone in the ballpark knew Mikolas was throwing at Happ on purpose. Guess what could happen when it’s blatantly obvious that a pitcher hit a batter with intent.
A pitcher can get ejected without the need of a warning being issued beforehand.
Oh, by the way, Chip Caray was on the call for that Marlins-Braves fiasco that led to right-handed pitcher José Ureña getting ejected after throwing and hitting Ronald Acuña Jr. on the first pitch of the game back in 2018.
What is even funner is Caray bitching about the Cubs having a 3-0 lead after the top of the first inning, pinning it all on the umpires.
And in case you missed it, Rooney couldn’t stop whining either during his meltdown.
Anyway, it was good to see Mikolas remind everyone where the Cardinals are in the NL Central standings.
