We’re on a tight deadline today and the Stanley Cup Finals game 6 are on tonight, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to fully comment on this whole Kemp-Torrealba debacle, but Jon Weisman said this:
In the top of the eighth, Torrealba got a close fastball near the chin. In the bottom of the eighth, with two out, Kemp struck out on a pitch in the dirt. The ball bounced so that Kemp was in Torrealba’s path to the ball. Torrealba pursued the ball with maybe a little extra force in trying to push through Kemp, while Kemp’s back foot kicked up against Torrealba’s helmet. Kemp turned and shoved Torrealba and then stood facing him, and then Torrealba shoved Kemp with two hands into the throat. And then a bench-clearing wrestling match of almost no moment started, though in the moment you’re always scared something catastrophic might occur. I was with Vin Scully in feeling that you just hate to see that happen, even if there was never really much unadulterated venom.
In interviews after the game, members of both squads seemed to feel little if any latent hostility, and Kemp himself was pretty much contrite.
Kemp was quoted as saying:
He kind of shoved me, and I shoved him back. It was a lot of frustration … and it was stupid. Not a good decision on my part. It was dumb on both of our parts. … It was frustration, no excuse to act like that.
Someone argued with me last night that Kemp was a punk and that his phantom “attitude” problems really shone through this incident (seriously, where did this whole attitude thing start from? I’ve heard about it twice the last two weeks and I think it stems from that time that Kent called him out for moving a trash can so he could get to his locker, but there’s a lot of BS floating around about it), but Kemp’s said exactly what he was supposed to. He really is a great guy and one day he’ll figure it out. Kemp really didn’t do much, he pushed Torrealba and then didn’t put his hands up, not really expecting Yorvit to throw a punch, so it didn’t look like he was trying to start something.
Then again, he did push Torrealba to begin with.
Whatever suspension he gets will be warranted. More on this later.
