Everett Ready For Punishment

In the eighth inning of Monday night’s 7-3 win over the Montreal Expos, with the bases full of teammates, Red Sox outfielder Carl Everett drew a walk, forcing in the final run of the game for Boston.

Everett jogged to first, then after the inning ended, headed for his usual position in center field. There’s a good possibility that it’s the last the Red Sox will see of him, on the field, until August.

Every expectation is that Everett will receive word today of disciplinary action from Frank Robinson, baseball’s executive vice-president of on-field operations, for his deplorable actions Saturday against the New York Mets, in which Everett lost his temper, and for a few frightening minutes, any sense of reality and perspective.

If recent history is any guide, Robinson is likely to dole out a lengthy suspension. Like famed Watergate judge “Maximum” John Sirica, Robinson has quickly earned himself a reputation for doling out tough sentences.

Before Major League Baseball president Paul Beeston reduced some suspensions on appeal, Robinson had acted the part of hanging judge with the Los Angeles Dodgers for their foray into the Wrigley Field stands in May, handing out a total of 84 games to 19 different participants.

Taking into account precedent and Robinson’s mandate to act decisively toward on-field eruptions, it’s almost a given that Everett will be dealt a 10-game vacation, at minimum, and some are venturing that Everett’s penalty could be as much as 20 games.

Everett’s behavior may not have been as over-the-top as Pete Rose’s shove of Dave Pallone in 1988, which earned him 30 games, still the standard by which all baseball suspensions are measures.

But it surely was more heinous that Bobby Cox’s almost incidental contact with Derryl Cousins before the All-Star break, which recently resulted in a five-game sit-down.

Pre-medidated assaults by players on on-field officials will not simply be sloughed off by Major League Baseball. Nor should they be.

Additionally, there are a number of factors working against Everett as Robinson weighs his decision The game Saturday was nationally televised by Fox, upping the embarrassment quotient for baseball.

Just four days after baseball trotted out players with their children on NBC’s pre-game show for the All-Star game - an attempt to emphasize baseball’s appeal to families and link to the next generation - Major League Baseball has a showcase game in which one of the same All-Stars bumps, then head-butts an on-field official, then has to be physically restrained by a handful of teammates and coaches.

Think baseball likes that lasting TV image, one that’s been replayed ad-nauseum in sportscasts and cable highlight shows ever since?

Negotiations are on-going with the new umpires’ union on a contract.

When A.L. president Gene Budig issued a mere wrist slap to Roberto Alomar for spitting on umpire John Hirschbeck in the final week of the 1996 season, it stung the union and gave them an issue around which they could rally.

That, in part, spurred the union to its ill-advised strategy of last July, which led to mass resignations and subsequent September replacements. While Major League Baseball clearly won that showdown and in the long run gained more permanent control over its umpires, it clearly doesn’t relish handing the new union an unifying issue and risk additional labor woes.

Robinson may not be directly reminded of the consequences of his decision, but then, he won’t have to be told. Very little happens in a vacuum at that level.

Everett’s slate is hardly clean.

Perhaps his past behavior shouldn’t be taken into account, but again, it’s impossible to ignore.

This, after all, is the same Everett who body-slammed Bobby Valentin, his then-manager to the ground during a similar ejection-outburst in 1997. In addition, Everett has had ugly incidents in the past.

If, say, Nomar Garciaparra had guilty of the same behavior Saturday, Robinson would undoubtedly factor in the first-time nature of the offense. By the same application, it’s impossible to dismiss the fact that Everett has a previous baseball rap sheet.

Just as predictably, Everett may appeal his punishment as unduly harsh.

But whereas Beeston lessened the sentencing of the Dodgers because of mitigating circumstances-alcohol intake by the fans, insufficient security from the Cubs-there are no such factors which Everett will be able to cite in his defense.