Nyjer Morgan Suspended Seven Games For Hitting Fan With Thrown Ball

Some Details Emerge Concerning Nyjer Morgan's Incident With A Fan

Earlier today, little was known about the incident that led to Nyjer Morgan getting suspended, but now we've got a bit of information:

Morgan threw the ball into the stands at the end of the eighth after he had exchanged in "an ongoing dialogue" with one fan, according to a league official. The back-and-forth with Morgan and the fan escalated until Morgan threw a ball into the crowd, which hit a different fan in the head. The league believes Morgan's intent was not to simply toss the ball to a fan, as is custom.

There is some question about the timing. Some outlets have Morgan throwing the ball in the eighth. Some outlets have Morgan throwing the ball in the middle of the ninth. Some outlets have Morgan throwing the ball at the end of the game. However, Morgan's only putout came on Jayson Werth's game-ending fly. Anyway, the timing isn't as important as the story. The dialogue, and its escalation, is the bit we were missing earlier on.

Interestingly enough, it seems both Morgan and manager Jim Riggleman were caught off guard by the disciplinary action:

Morgan had little to say about the suspension following the game aside from allowing he was surprised by the news.. "As far as I know, I've got to just wait for my appeal process. I can't really say too much. ... This is brand new news to me. We've just got to take it from here."
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"I'm not sure what happened," Manager Jim Riggleman said. "Today is the first I'd heard about it. Right before game time, it was brought to my attention that there was an issue there. Something took place there that, Nyjer had an issue with a fan or something. MLB is going to take care of it with Nyjer."

Morgan's appeal should take place sometime soon, but this suspension isn't going to go away completely.

VIDEO: Lead-Up To Nyjer Morgan's Suspension-Worthy Thrown Ball Incident

It's been reported that the thrown ball incident for which Nyjer Morgan has been suspended occurred after the final out of Saturday night's game in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, upon viewing the MLB.tv archives, the camera cuts away right at the good part:

We see Morgan make the catch, we see him fake a toss into the seats, and we see him hold the ball up as he looks back. From there, we're left to speculate. Had the fans been giving him a hard time? Did he really wheel around and chuck the ball into the bleachers? Is this all an overreaction or a misunderstanding?

I imagine Morgan will weigh in at some point in the coming days.

Nyjer Morgan Suspended Seven Games For Hitting Fan With Thrown Ball

It seems Nationals outfielder Nyjer Morgan was part of an incident that nobody really noticed until Wednesday afternoon. And the incident was of sufficient severity to earn him a seven-game suspension. Says Mark Zuckerman:

Nyjer Morgan has been suspended seven games and fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Baseball for "inappropriate actions" at the end of Saturday night's game in Philadelphia.
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The incident occurred at the very end of Saturday's 8-1 victory over the Phillies. Morgan caught the final out of the game on a fly ball from Jayson Werth, then turned and threw the ball into the stands, striking a fan.

The incident got no coverage at the time, but seven games is no small punishment, so one would think the fan came away pretty badly roughed up.

Morgan is appealing the suspension and is in Wednesday's lineup. The outfielder has batted just .261 on the year, with 31 steals but zero home runs.