Courtesy of Bill Ladson at MLB.com, here were Nyjer Morgan‘s comments this afternoon upon learning about his eight-game suspension for “three separate incidents” in the past week, including clipping St. Louis Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson instead of touching home plate, exchanging expletives with fans in Miami after bowling over Florida Marlins catcher Brett Hayes—ending his season with a separated shoulder—on Tuesday night, and the resultant brawl Wednesday night:
“Man, they threw the book at me. What did I do? I feel I haven’t done anything. They are blowing this way out of proportion because I’m a hard-nosed player—because I knocked over a catcher. They throw the ball at me. Come on, what am I supposed to do? I have to take this and try to keep playing.
I feel I haven’t done anything wrong expect for playing the game hard and play the game like it’s supposed to be played. Wow. I don’t know what else to say. It’s just a fact that people are blowing this way out of proportion. I don’t think you should be suspended for hitting a catcher…I don’t understand what I did wrong to get an eight-game suspension. They make it seem like I’m Mike Tyson.”
Morgan has appealed this current suspension, since he is in Friday night’s lineup (hitting leadoff, no less), and he has appealed the pending seven-game suspension for throwing a ball into the stands in Philadelphia, injuring a patron. His original hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, but has been pushed to next Friday, presumably so they can handle both cases.
The league can’t appreciate Morgan making these further statements in the press, and it certainly won’t help him in the hearing.
Morgan should consider himself fortunate that he “only” got eight games.
Marlins pitcher Alex Sanabia got five for his part, and the video shows him throwing a couple punches on the bottom of the pile and then getting tossed around like a rag doll by Adam Dunn. If Morgan got just three more games than Sanabia, with the Cardinals incident and the yelling at fans incident lumped in, Morgan is lucky he didn’t get two weeks.
It amazes me that Morgan appears so clueless to not realize what he’s done, unless this is still part of this “underdog tough guy” act. I also wonder why his agent hasn’t taken it upon himself to shut his client up.
But I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me.
Find out why it shouldn’t surprise anyone at Nats News Network.
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