Beckett's Suspension: Did He Really Mean It?

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090414&content_id=4266542&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

Im not a sports commentator, but this is a situation I would like to voice my opinion on, being a Red Sox fan and all. Josh Becket was suspended six games after a game in which he hummed a pitch past Bobby Abreu's head after Abreu had called for time.

Here is the video of the incident, in which Beckett was not ejected during the game, but suspended for six games after the game was over. I don't think Beckett meant to throw at his head, I just think that he realized at the last moment that Bobby Abreu had called for time and it was too late for him to stop, and his confusion made him lose control of the ball.

However, I do believe that this situation in the game could have been prevented from escalating to the level which it did, with both benches clearing, including the late-arriving bullpen. If Beckett hadn't walked towards Abreu yelling (then again I don't know what he was yelling or if it was bad), and maybe gestured towards him that the pitch wasn't intentional, then the clearing of the benches might have been avoided.

Bobby Abreu handled this situation very well in opinion, considered the circumstances. He did not charge the mound like many other players would, or even get excessively mad, until Beckett started towards him. He just threw his hands up because he didn't get why Beckett did that, and he was not expecting it at all. If someone threw a 94 mile-per-hour fastball right past my head, after I had already called time-out, I would definitely be pretty mad too.

I think that these two teams can definitely put this incident behind them, and Abreu will forgive Beckett for his faux pas. On another note, The Angels beat the Sox 2/3 games right after losing an extremely valuable teammate, Nick Adenhart, to a drunk driver, which is very impressive. Hopefully the two team's next meeting won't go so rocky next time.