Meanwhile, the silliest controversy so far this season involves Minnesota centerfielder Torii Hunter. I know, you always though Hunter was one of the good guys — highlights of his amazing catches are always on SportsCenter, and he’s always smiling and laughing it up with players, fans and broadcasters.
It seems that Hunter broke the rules and needs to be punished.
Last year, the Kansas City Royals ended the regular season with a sweep of the Detroit Tigers, and this enabled Hunter’s Minnesota Twins to win the AL Central Division title. At the time, Hunter was so happy that he promised to buy champagne for each of the Royals’ players.
"Every one of them! Dom Perignon!” Hunter was quoted as saying.
Hunter — who is on pace to hit 102 doubles this season — is a man of his word. He had four bottles of champagne sent to Kansas City’s Mike Sweeney when the Twins were there for a series last weekend.
Apparently, that’s a no-no.
What was initially a friendly, playful gesture is threatening to turn into a ridiculous scandal. It’s against the rules to send someone a bottle of champagne. In fact, if you go by the letter of the law — or at least the letter of the Major League Baseball rule book — Hunter is supposed to serve a three-year suspension.
The rule states: “Any player or person connected with a Club who shall offer or give any gift or reward to a player or person connected with another Club for services rendered in defeating or attempting to defeat a competing Club ... shall be declared ineligible for not less than three years.”
Got that? Hunter bought Sweeney some bubbly, and for that he’s supposed to get kicked out of the game. As if the Major League Baseball bureaucrats don’t have anything more important to worry about.
On Monday, the Twins were contacted by Selig’s office. The Twins then contacted the Royals, who agreed to send the still-unopened bubbly back. High-minded officials talked about the “integrity of the game.”
What a bunch of losers.
Fortunately, since there was no harm done, baseball’s Perignon Police are probably going to let this one slide, and won’t take action to punish Hunter.
That’s a good thing. It just might be the first step to prevent the bean-counting baseball bureaucrats from ruining what should be an excellent season.
Any views expressed in this column are not necessarily the views of the Ottumwa Courier. Sports editor James Grob can be contacted at sports@ottumwacourier.com.
