I haven't been following Mayo at all, beyond the recent video footage and the commentary on it on the web, so I'm going to withhold any overall judgments on the guy. The act that I saw in the video was classless, I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, here's a video to go along w/ the one you talked about in this post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW0tuz3_Hgc

and a picture:

http://www.h-net.org/~arete/archives/threads/alomarpic.html

and I can't find the video of Hanley Ramirez kicking the catcher after he got beaned, but that belongs here too.

Hey, Brian: Thanks for the links. I don't think it was Hanley Ramirez who kicked the catcher - it was another Red Sox prospect by the name of Izzy Alcantara that did that.

There are degrees to all the aforementioned incidents:

-Punching a referee (for making a call, nothing more) from up close, full-strength = complete felon behavior, should be arrested. I also put the hockey player who recently hit an opponent across the head with his stick in the same category. Ironically enough, despite all the condemnation of that act, you really didn't heard much more about the hockey incident beyond that; it wasn't a front page discussion for days like the 'Melo "brawl" was, for example.

-Throwing the bat at the umpire (Delmon Young). Again, a despicable act. But slightly less atrocious. He wasn't point blank, and he didn't throw it aiming at the umpire (Young throw bat behind him, without looking). That doesn't make the act any less atrocious, but relative to the video in the post it is not as bad. The ump continued in the game, and didn't spend three days in a hospital. Perspective. Never the less, Delmon Young got a well-deserved 50 game suspension, and that is probably just.

-Spitting on an umpire. A terrible dehumanizing act, worthy of a suspension and fine. I forget what Alomar's punishment was (like 10 game suspension?), but it was steep, and well-deserved. Still, much as spitting on someone is deplorable, it is not equivalent to assault (as in the above examples).

-Showmanship in a blowout (the Mayo "crime"). Not a crime. Not an assault. Bad sportsmanship perhaps. If the other team gave him a hard foul he would have deserved it. That's about the extent of the punishment it deserves. And, to be frank, most fans love it. They might talk hypocritical sh*t, and say it's "punk behavior" when it's an opposing team, but when it's their team in a blowout - they are rooting and clapping and cheering for their team. Then they love the dunks, don't they?

You were right about Hanley (that's why I couldn't find any video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNtW0BW2fC0

As for Mayo, I didn't say it was a crime, I said it was a class-less act. He doesn't deserve any punishment, other than being thrown out of the game, which he was. Based on that video alone, I don't think it's a stretch to call the kid a punk. He may have all the talent in the world, he may make a good college player and a good pro after that, he may mature, and probably will to some degree, but from this one clip of film, he looks like a punk. (It's not so much the dunk that bothers me, throwing the ball into the stands and strutting around as the ref tosses you is the alarming part of the video)

If there was video of every game I ever played in High School, I'm sure you could pull out a couple of clips that made me look like a punk too. He's a kid, what he does now doesn't mean a thing in the big picture. Eventually, he's going to have to learn that behavior like that has consequences, both from opponents and teammates, or he won't. Either way, I don't think it's worth vilifying him or coming to his defense at this point.

He's got a lot to learn, on and off the court, why don't we just wait and see what kind of a player, and man, he becomes in the next couple of years.

Oh man. I'm speechless. I mean, I do some light weight Rec League reffin', and I get annoyed when bigger players taunt me for (missed) calls. That's just scary knowing your life can be threatened. Damn.

I'd never seen this before; that's an impressive cheapshot. Here's a link from an Argentine newspaper following up on The Punch:

http://www.clarin.com/diario/2001/01/25/d-01102.htm

It happened back in January of 2001, and the article mentions a possible jail sentence of anywhere from a month to six years, but I couldn't find any other information about what finally became of Elnes Bolling, the puncher, nor Fabián Blumenblant, the referee.

The

Wow.