Five American Batters Hit By Chinese Pitchers In Brutal Olympics Game (VIDEO)

The Chicago Tribune reports on a brutal baseball game between the US and China that featured five American batters getting hit by Chinese pitches:

Our relations with China were nearly broken at the plate.

A near-brawl with our Olympic hosts in a baseball game won 9-1 by the U.S. team Monday night resulted in an unexpected outbreak of tension for the international pastime.

Three members of China's team were ejected from the game.

Two collisions at home plate led to an injury to a Chinese catcher and a confrontation with another.

An American player was then hit in the head with a pitch. He was rushed to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.

"That was the last straw," said U.S. center fielder Nate Schierholtz, another of the principals.

Watch the video, courtesy of MSNBC:

Comments

[Mason]

Two names, five words" Tyrus Raymond Cobb, Pete Rose.

Two spectacular collisions at home plate, but neither of them were intended to inflict permanent harm. The runners went in high and hard and nailed the catchers in the upper chest and shoulder -- not below the knees -- which can cause a career ending injury as Gene Freeze suffered in an all-star game when Pete Rose totally destroyed Freeze's ankle in a brutal take-out slide. Ty Cobb patented the take-out slide by coming in low feet first with his spikes up trying to destroy the defensive player's knees and will forever be known as the dirtiest player in baseball.

Throwing at a guy's head, even when he's wearing a helmet, is a definite no-no. Serious Red Sox fans recall what happened to their stellar young all-star shortstop, Tony Conigliaro, who suffered a career-ending injury when he was hit in the head. I think that happened in the late fifties or early mid sixties before wearing batting helmets was mandatory.

It looked to me like the American batter kind of froze. The legendary Bob Gibson used to throw fastballs in the mid nineties right at a batter's chin to back him off the plate; hence, the term "chin music," one of my favorite baseball expressions.

[genseric13]

The American played very rough but I would rather the Chinese play rough in return, rather then play dirty, but I realize they were frustrated because of losing. Anyway, maybe they can go to a sportsmanship class.

[dartagnan]

WTF is the MATTER with those people??? You can frickin' KILL somebody hitting him in the head with a pitch. The Chinese team should be banned from the sport for a year.

[kassandrasduplex]

Never thought I'd feel this way but maybe MacArthur was right when he wanted to go atomic on the Chinese...
That bean ball was a direct hit on our hitter. Not an accident.

[ilcapo]

Nate Schierholtz went out of his way to run over the Chinese catcher,that was a dirty play,when you get beaned you do what in baseball it s always been done,your teammate drills one of their guys,you don t crash into the catcher who s not even blocking the plate...that throw to the head was a dirty play by the Chinese,no doubt,you don t drill a guy in the head,you hit him anywhere but the head...

[piquet]

He was standing on the plate with 2 feet. He's lucky his lung didn't collapse from that hit. And YES he/that team and that piss ant insecure country china deserved the image of their automatom getting crushed.
Best moment of the Olympics...by far.

[wondering]

I hope you do not know any Asian Americans ... or own a gun.

[kassandrasduplex]

Actually my partner of 20 years is Asian. Hyperbole, friend, hyperbole. A pitch to the head by a professional pitcher is attempted murder.
And no, I own no guns, so whatever comes comes.

[NMdonkey]

Well, my suspicion is that the beach volleyball women will eventually play in the nude. I like how they claim they dress that way because it's easier to move. Funny, the male players don't seem to have any problem moving in long shorts and tanks/sleeveless shirts.

[buyaclueplease]

Did she say "Shakka Khan" at the end of the video? Wtf?

[chronic]

LOL she said "shocker"!

[publanski]

She did say "shocker," but then she added "shocker Khan."

Though there's no excuse for throwing at someone's head, there's also no excuse for taking out the catcher the way the American did. That was really disgraceful.

[ChiGuy]

If you can't stand the heat.................
The Chinese show good sportsmanship when they win, but when confronted with the true test, losing, they show their true colors.
They're have been quite a few questionable "homer" calls in some of the events that required scoring by judges. Most notably diving and gymnastics.

[ChiGuy]

Oops. "There"

[Mort]

Baseball used to be about running bases, spitting and impregnating groupies. The Chinese have turned it into a combat sport.

[Mason]

I'm sorry to have to call you out, but the Chinese did not turn baseball into a contact sport. No one who knows anything about baseball would make such a comment. Read up on the Georgia Peach.

[marred]

you yanks deserve that one for sure!

[RunMeloRun]

here's the recap of the whole thing, LOL

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/sports/1114518,2_2_AU19_COUCH_S1.article

[Big0725]

Nice link, NOT!

[RunMeloRun]

come on, thats an illegal slide.

[vontrapp]

yeah, so it's justified to throw at someone's head

[RLTW75]

What will make the 2008 Olympics note worthy are the 10,000 condoms sold to the 2,000 participating athetes within the first five days of events.

Honestly I miss the Olympics of old - the 60's and 70's. They were the most entertaining. Nobody cared about drugs, gender, age, as long as it Olympic warfare each day and night.

I truly miss the Russian and Warsaw Pact MALE athletes in all the strength events who turned into "females" with unibrows in order to compete with the real females from the other countries. It was like non-stop SNL.

We need to bring back the old days ...

[Outofnowhere]

Don't forget the East Germans too. Those girls looked like they could manhandle a Sumu wrestler.

[craneman]

Don't forget that the original Olympians preformed in the nude. Maybe that would calm everyone down.

[Nooneyouknow]

They weren't girls. I'm not even sure they were women.

[Mason]

I say party on! BTW, you're nuts if you think athletes in the old days practiced celibacy at the Olympics. Are you out of your mind????????

[RLTW75]

The Olympics afford nations like the US and CHina to go to war with each other, without bloodshed, or nearly no bloodshed. Chinese are only telling us what the world has been telling us for decades. The US is an imperialistic war mongering nation who invades innocent sovereign countries on the pretext of going after the bad guys who did 9/11. Truth is, the US did 9/11. So Chinese players act out what the rest of the world would like to act out. Our batter gets hit in teh head and the world cheers.
Soon OBama will remake the world as he said in his speech in Berlin - "...together we will remake the world".

[kassandrasduplex]

"Soon OBama will remake the world as he said in his speech in Berlin "

Have you checked the polls lately? Obama trailing. Looks like the American elections are going to go to the GOP for the foreseeable future. One party totalitarian rule. The republic is dead. Long live the umpire.

[Mason]

I'm sure the Chinese pitcher wasn't thinking about plunking the American batter because the US is a war mongering nation. Are you daft?

[RJII]

a baseball game. meh. china has already beat, bought and soon broke America complements of clinton and the bushs.

[TrooAmerican]

yeah, but while they own us, at least we can say we still have better atheletes in major sports.
Just wait till they Add US Football to the olympics and we field our Pro-Bowl candidates.
BAM..

[Big0725]

Trouble with that is Canada and the US are the only countries that play American football.

[Mason]

American football is a sissy sport compared to rugby.

[kassandrasduplex]

Wasn't it Nixon who famously "opened up China"? And didn't the American manufacturing jobs start flooding into China under Ronald Reagan's first administration? 1984 is when Chrysler began building Jeeps in China isn't it?
Anyone recall the Reagan Rust Bowl?

[RichardIII]

US ORDERS STRIKES ON ITS OWN!!!!!!! With the score at 4-0 US on top in the fifth, LaPorta runs over Wei (Chinas best player and a Mariner's prospect) who then has to leave the game due to knee injury.

The very next inning with score at 6-0, Schiorholtz runs over sustitute catcher Yang who then has to be restrained from attacking Schiorholz. (FYI:Yang hits homer in ninth and rounds bases with fist raised).

American Jim Lafebver, manager of the Chinese team is ejected for arguing about the rough play at the plate. Lafebver is replaced by the American Johnson. Johnson and pitching coach American Steven Ontiveros are warned re: retaliation. In spite of being warned, LaPorta is stuck in head by Cinese reliever Kun (pitch first glances off shoulder). Kun and Ontiveros are ejected from game.

I couldn't find anything about the other struck batter shown in the video. I strongly doubt 5 batters were stuck in this game. Lafebvfer, Johnson and Ontiveros are Americans. No doubt they ordered the retaliatory strikes on the American team players. Fortunately they ordered that the pitches be thrown relatively slowly.

[RichardIII]

Correction: Johnson coaches the U.S. team, and I am not sure who replaced Lafebver. Maybe the pitching coach Ontivaros. Johnson could not have ordered that a USA batter to be thrown at. My apologies.

[RobinSeattle]

Just as an aside, Lefebvre, Davey Johnson and Ontiveros all played in Japan.