China Declares War on USA (on the Diamond)

Well, here’s how to make Americans (sorta) interested in Olympic baseball: Throw at the head of one of MLB’s best prospects. In today’s China-USA game, that’s exactly what happened, as Matt LaPorta (who you may know from such deals as the CC Sabathia-to-Brewers trade) was hit in the head with a fastball. Having watched it happen, and based on what occurred leading up to the incident, it seemed fairly obvious that it was deliberate.

In the 5th inning, LaPorta knocked China’s catcher out of the game with a hard slide at the plate. The following inning, American Nate Schierholtz ran over China’s back-up catcher with the collision seen above, which nearly led to a brawl as the catcher went after Schierholtz. Then, in the 7th, LaPorta took the heater off the head, which sent him to the hospital with a concussion. So yeah, I’d say they were throwing at him.

In the end, six Americans were hit by pitches, three people were ejected, including the Chinese pitcher who hit LaPorta and his manager, former-MLBer Jim Lefebvre, who said Schierholtz should’ve been ejected for running over his back-up catcher. Apparently, coaching in China somehow makes you forget how the game of baseball is played.

The best part of all this, however, comes from said back-up catcher, Yang-Yang:

Yang homered with one out in the ninth for China’s lone run and raised his right arm in the air the entire way around the bases.

Go crazy, Yang. Not only did you account for your team’s one and only run in a 9-1 whooping, but you also got straight punked at the plate. Perhaps you should try gymnastics.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.