Seattle Mariners’ outfielder/third baseman Logan Morrison, acquired from the Miami Marlins this off-season in exchange for RHP Carter Capps, threw a bit of a temper tantrum during Sunday’s game against the Texas Rangers.
Morrison popped out to short with the Mariners trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning. There were runners in scoring position and only one out at the time. Morrison became more than frustrated, stomping back to the dugout, bat in hand.
The next thing anyone knew Morrison was taking out his disappointment on the Mariners’ dugout with his bat. The bat splintered and caused a laceration on his forehead that ended up requiring stitches. He was immediately removed from the game and back-up catcher John Buck was forced to fill in at first.
"“He had to receive five stitches,” McClendon said post-game. “So he obviously couldn’t go back out there.”"
When Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times wrote of Morrisons’ post-game appearance, he stated that Morrision “looked like a UFC fighter.”
Baseball had definitely seen enough childish behavior for the entire year in the month of June alone. However, to give Morrison a little bit of credit he immediately took responsibility for his juvenile actions, unlike the Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado. Machado denied his actions post-game, then followed up with an apology the following day and is now appealing the suspension he was handed by MLB. Appealing the suspension is basically once again denying he behaved inappropriately.
Morrison, on the other hand. talked reporters immediately following the game saying,
"“Obviously I acted like a 3-year-old. I apologized to my teammates. I’m about to go apologize to Mac. I can’t do that. I didn’t want to come out of the game. They saw me gushing blood from my eyebrow and they took me out. I’m embarrassed. No matter how bad I’m playing, I can’t do that.”"
The immediate apology in no way absolves him of the inappropriate behavior but at least he was able to man up and admit that what he did was wrong.