For those who remember the scars of the season-opening series sweep for the Royals to the Cleveland Indians, you'll likely also remember the tweet from Chris Perez, the Indians' closer, who made fun of the Royals "our time" slogan. The message closed with the line, "You hit us, we hit you. Period." It's likely that final line that earned Perez a $750 fine from Major League Baseball.
"It caught me off guard," Perez said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. "I can go through the union and I'm still waiting to hear back what my agent wants to do. It's not really about the money, it's about the principle. I don't know if I'm the first one ever. I'm getting the most publicity out of it. I don't want to just lie down and let them have full reign, because right now there are no guidelines, so how are we supposed to know? That's what I want to get out of it. If I crossed the line, fine, but what's the line?"
Perez definitely has a point here. All that the Indians pitcher did was state out loud what everyone knows -- that every team retaliates by hitting the opposing team's batter. Can a player get fined for saying such things? Should a player be cited for being competitive? In the wake of the NFL bounty program, it seems the MLB powers that be has an itchy trigger finger. The good news for Perez is that it's only $750.