Pedro v Zimmer & Artest v Pistons Fans

These two incidents were two of the most infamous sports incidents in the past few years. But for what reasons? Because two athletes were defending themselves against over zealous attackers?

It's been a few years but these two things came to mind today and it's time for those who cut up Pedro Martinez and Ron Artest to shut up.


Pedro may have thrown at hitters during his rivalry with the Yanks but that's baseball - a traditional, albeit stupid, part of baseball. So when Pedro was standing there by himself during the 2003 ALCS Yanks/BoSox brawl and Don Zimmer suddenly charged at him in a malicious, vengeful manner, what did you expect Pedro to do, stand there and take a punch? Get real fools. Any one of us would defend ourselves if some angry man came charging at us, even if he was 72 years old. Let's be fair to Pedro. He was taken by surprise and essentially brushed Zimmer aside by simply holding his head in a quick, instinctual reaction and throwing him down, pretty much sparing him the potential harm he could have faced had Pedro clocked him.



And as much as Ron Artest is a giant douche, he too did what any one of us, with balls that is, would have done. If you're lying there and someone throws a beer on your chest, are you going to stay there and say "ohh that's okay, I actually needed a beer bath, thanks man!"? I didn't think so.

It's a perfectly normal human reaction to do what Artest did and jump into the stands and go after the punk who threw the beer. That pansy David Stern banned Artest for the rest of the season in order to set precedent and prevent other players from entering the crowd but you can't deny that what Artest did is what most people would have done. So for all the critics who say athletes should never get into it with fans and that what Artest did is wrong, put yourself in that position and see if you wouldn't do the same. The only guy in sports media that I can recall preaching the same thing as I have here is Bob McCown of the FAN 590 sports radio in Toronto and I don't agree with a lot of what he says, but at least he had the right opinion on this issue, unlike so many others out there.