This story is pretty funny from a few different angles.  When reading the story, it makes it sound like Victorino came barreling in at full speed to get to home plate umpire Ed Rapuano.  Victorino even says he “never ran so fast from center field to home plate”.  He also “violently shoved catcher Paul Bako”, according to David Gurian-Peck of MLB.com.  Upon watching the video, however, Victorino jogged in from center, and I really hope that is not the fastest he can run (here at The Sports Idiot we have it on good authority that Victorino can run really, really fast).  Violently shoved Bako?  Really?  I think violent may mean something different to Gurian-Peck than it does to me.

Then there are the dismissals of Victorino by Rapuano altogether.  Granted, Victorino should not have responded to the pitch like he did (see Jimmy Rollins’ reaction in the video?), but there is no way he should have been ejected for it.  The real dismissal comes when Victorino finishes his 100 yard dash to get in Rapuano’s face, however.  It looks like he may have gotten half a sentence in before being corralled by Bako (how did he recover from such a blatant act of violence so quickly?  Steroids?) and Ryan Howard, and then having Rapuano just turn and walk away.  When looking at it from a distance it sure makes Victorino look silly.  Anyway, watch the video and form your own opinion.

Howard: 111
Hamels:  90

While certain Philly fans will see this as “more Philly bashing” from me, it really is not.  I find it a fascinating question, but yet one that holds no bearing on anything.  My stance on strikeouts, which are wasted at-bats (for the most part) but no worse than grounding out of popping out (when you do not advance any runners), has evolved into one of annoyed acceptance at this point.