Monday, Bob Watson, Vice President of On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, confirmed Red Sox pitcher Frank Castillo's suspicions by doling out a five-game suspension for the hurler's contact with third base umpire Bill Welke in Wednesday's game against San Diego. Castillo was also fined an undisclosed amount as part of the discipline. With a runner on first and one out in the seventh inning and the game tied, 1-1, Welke called a balk on Castillo, allowing the Padres' Tom Lampkin to move into scoring position. Following a run-scoring double by Julios Matos, Castillo charged Welke, stepping on the umpire's left foot.

Today, the umpire is being made obsolete. With all of the technology out there nowadays, it seems that all they are good for is ejecting people when they make lousy calls. It's bullshit. But this isn't a rant, actually. I just wanted to preface what I was going to say with that.

I think baseball should be played more like this. There needs to be a lot more boasting and emotional displays like Castillo's. Yeah, if he hadn't given up the hit to Lampkin, there wouldn't have been a balk called, but balks are bullshit calls anyway. They don't allow enough subterfuge in baseball. There has to be a clear pause before you throw home or to a base, so if you try to pick a runner off without pausing a balk is called. You don't even have to throw the ball to get the balk! You can make a fake to keep the baserunner in line. Because of this rule, it is so insanely hard to pick a runner off that it's really pointless to even try. The only reason to do it is to keep the runner on the bag when you're trying to turn a double play or something so you can get the force out.

So you should just be able to throw directly after lining up. It's still hard to pick someone off because the baseman has to tag the runner, it just makes it a lot easier to do so and eliminates the balk, which is bullshit anyway.

And boasting. After a game, players are always like, "Yeah, we went out there and we tried to play our best. We did," "We got lucky on a few pitches," "You just have to go out there and play the game and that's what we did, you can't focus on individual performance," "The other team just got the better of us." Bah. Baseball players need to be more full of insults and witty comments. Stuff like, "Well, sometimes you're on your game. Tonight, their pitcher wasn't. He sucked. A lot," "You make that many errors, the other team's eventually going to capitalize on one. We got 'em all tonight," "I went oh for four because the ump made some really crappy calls," "We sucked balls tonight. There's no other explanation."

Fights should be more commonplace, too. Bench-clearing fights are the best. Like, with that whole Clemens-Piazza thing a week or so ago, instead of all that pussy shit, "Oh, let's throw at Clemens!" Clemens should have just taken an ass-whuppin'. The whole Mets bench should have cleared and pounded the Yankees bench. Injuries galore. Yeah.

In any event, Boston fans have it all wrong. The Yankees and Derek Jeter, unfortunately, don't suck...

BUT THEY SHOULD!

Knaa'mean?