I knew that something strange was in the air when I turned on my television the other night and I heard Republicans complaining about the Elian seizure. I mean, Republicans complaining about guns is about as unexpected and hypocritical as a Catcher complaining about a little chin music. What has happened to this world? Are all of our stupid tough guy archetypes going soft on us? I think that a comparison between the Republicans handling of Clintongate, and the Cleveland handling of Pedro can be taken a little further in a very useful way.

It is pretty clear to me, and I believe any television viewing American, that since the Republicans could not beat Bill Clinton fair and square in an election, they were willing to stoop to any pathetic level to knock him out of office. So far, nothing has worked. Now lets look at our parallel, Mr. Martinez the younger; or as the Indians must regard him, Captain Invincibility. Not only is Pedro 7-0 against the tribe, but they have not even scored one measly run off of him for 20+ innings. They found themselves to be completely incapable of beating him within the rules, so they resorted to recent Republican tactics and tried to take him out with dirty tricks. They lingered for hours outside of the batters box, they refused to swing at pitches, hoping to at least add to his pitch count, they said bad things about his mommy, they hired an independent council to investigate his real estate investments, but they could not do it. Finally, they put him in a situation where he had to get himself tossed, or risk losing face to his teammates.

I have heard many Sox fans complaining about Pedro hitting Robbie Alomar not because they felt it was undeserved (I mean, who wouldn’t want to hit this guy?), but because a much-needed win was still on the line. But I believe that it is important to take a long haul approach to understanding why Pedro did what he did.

As the staff ace, and the best pitcher in Baseball, it would be very easy for Pedro to get alienated from the rest of his teammates. When push comes to shove, he is more important than they are. But the key to Pedro is that although he knows that, he refuses to act like it. When he is benched for being late on a day he was set to start, he humbly accepts the punishment doled out to him by his manager. When he is called on to plunk his buddy Roberto, he does so without worrying about fines and suspensions. For many a fan that makes them nervous, they want Pedro to think about consequences like missing games further down the line, and leaving while the outcome of the game is still very much in question. What would the headlines in Boston have looked like had Lowe blown it in the ninth inning?

But there was a set of consequences that Pedro was considering, and they do have long term implications that are probably a lot more significant to us winning the grand enchilada this year than does the outcome of that game, or even a ludicrous five game suspension. Those consequences were best summed up by Sox full time skipper, part time Zen holy man Jimy Williams after the now infamous game. When asked by reporters why Pedro chose to do what he did, Jimy extended his hands, and locked his fingers together. “This,” he said, “is so important. That’s a team. That’s what’s important. It’s a marathon. That doesn’t mean we are a great team, but we’re going to try. And as long as we try, that’s what’s important. We have to take care of our own the best we can. That’s all I can tell you.”

And that is all that I need to hear. The magic of Jimy is not in his ability to captivate with his unique ideas, but to create an environment in the clubhouse that is as close as the fingers on his stubby interlocked hands. And personally, as someone who grew up in the hey day of 25 players, 25 limos, I cannot tell you how welcome it all is. I was right to notice something different in the air the other day, but I don’t think it had anything to do with Republicans, or guns, you know what it is? We have a TEAM in Boston now. These guys have each other’s back, and all a suspension is going to do is push that unit a little tighter together. The rest is just a bad call by MLB, and specifically Frank “I really should know better” Robinson.

jnickel@virtual-ink.com