Nick Castellanos socked an Opening Day homer for the Cincinnati Reds against the St. Louis Cardinals, and two days later wore a fastball for it. The picture above was part of the initial aftermath of said plunk, as Castellanos offered back the ball that poked him to Cardinals rookie Jake Woodford, said plunker.
A few interesting baseball plays later, and Castellanos dove home head-first, beating both the tag attempt by Woodford and the knee that ended up in his back in the process, as you can see below.
Most dudes don’t like being sat-on in non-contact sports, I’d imagine.
Anyway, the flex heard ‘round Reds country came next, benches cleared, and somehow Nick ended up the only player ejected in the fracas. While he and the Reds went on to wrap up a pair of thumpings of St. Louis to end the series, MLB dropped the fun-hammer again on Monday morning, announcing that - you guessed it - Castellanos and Castellanos only was the lone player suspended for the entire events.
MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon had the news:
Castellanos suspended and other #reds fined pic.twitter.com/4ju4A1LPnA
— Mark Sheldon (@m_sheldon) April 5, 2021
What this confirms is that hitting an opposing player who somehow wronged you is fine. Grabbing opposing players in a fracas is fine. Posterizing an opponent, though, is somehow an event egregious enough to get one ejected from finishing one game and suspended for a further two.
What a crock, MLB. Huff and puff and tighten your trousers all you want, we’ll be busy hanging this poster all over town while Nick appeals: