Managers' antics getting tiresome

At one point Saturday afternoon, ESPN.com’s highlights included back-to-back blowups by baseball managers.

Naturally, the Chicago Cubs’ Lou Piniella was involved in one of the incidents. The other was a minor-league manager that went on a dirt-kicking, base-throwing tirade—including crawling from second base to the pitcher’s mound, using it for cover, then throwing the rosin bag like a grenade.

It seems these outbursts are becoming more and more common. Seemingly, we see a new one every year. And it begs the question: why?

Admittedly, this issue isn’t the same kind of problem steroids is, but these guys are taking it a little too far.

I’m taking a righteous stand, here. When managers go off like this, they make a mockery of themselves, and of the game. It’s tacky, and there’s no place for it.

To that end, Major League Baseball may have taken a step in the right direction Sunday by suspending Piniella indefinitely for his latest fiasco.

Nobody is bigger than the game, and these guys deserve suspensions for trying to be.

On the suspension front, Chris Pronger of the Anaheim Ducks will not play in game four of the Stanley Cup Final after receiving a one-game suspension for elbowing Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond in the head in game three. This is Pronger’s second suspension of the playoffs, and one can’t help but wonder if the league’s head office sees the hulking defenseman as a dirty player suddenly. Good on the league for reacting quickly to a dangerous hit, and even better on the league for suspending a star player in the playoffs.

And now a positive note to sign off with. Ottawa’s Chris Neil probably just had the greatest weekend of his life. In addition to scoring a huge goal for Ottawa in game three, he also saw the birth of his first child. It was a big weekend for the Neil family, and no matter how the series turns out, Chris has to be feeling good.