OFFERMAN'S GREATEST E

Last November I celebrated Jose Offerman's birthday with a post and a good old Offerman joke. Frankly, I thought that I was probably done with Offerman forever after that post. Oh, how wrong I was. How very wrong I was.

Apparently Mr. Two F's and 42 E's was not done playing professional baseball when the Major Leagues were done with him. So, following in the steps of Ricky Henderson, Carlos Baerga, Ruben Sierra, Jose Conseco, Tim Raines, and others, Offerman went to play in the Atlantic League for the Long Island Ducks. That was all well and good. Leagues like the Atlantic League, the Northern League, the Frontier League, and the CanAm League all offer good outlets for professional baseball. Usually.

In Offerman's case it may all have been too exciting. Yesterday Offerman hit a homerun. On his next at bat he was hit with a pitch. That is pretty old school. However, it is baseball. The appropriate retaliation is for the pitcher on the Ducks to hit one of their guys. Then it will be over, there will be a bean ball war, or there will be a brawl. That's how these things go. What does not normally happen (Juan Marichal aside) is having the batter, Jose Offerman, charge the mound and hit both the pitcher and the catcher in the head* with his bat. This is considered bad form by Offerman, and probably spells the end of his professional baseball career in America.

* One player had a concussion, the other was not seriously hurt.