Did you catch Jose Offerman’s meltdown last night?

The man Dan Duquette signed to replace Mo Vaughn’s on-base percentage was arrested and charged with two counts of second degree assault after attacking a pitcher and catcher with his bat. The former Major League All-Star, now plying his craft for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, charged the mound with his bat after being hit by a pitch. Offerman had homered of Bridgeport pitcher Matt Beech, who proceeded to plunk the former Red Sox player in the calf during his next at bat.

Beech suffered a broken finger trying to defend himself, while catcher John Nathans suffered a concussion when one of Offerman’s backswings at Beech caught him in the head. Police immediately took the 38-year old former Red Sox player into custody in the clubhouse. He was arraigned Wednesday, released on $100,000 bond and ordered to appear in court August 23rd.

A couple of interesting things here; first, Carl Everett also plays for the Ducks…I’d have figured this type of behavior more his style than Offerman’s. Secondly, it continues a recent trend of athletes being criminally charged for excessively violent actions during the course of a game (think Marty McSorley and Todd Bertuzzi). I think it will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

I’m curious what you folks think of law enforcement getting actively involved in prosecuting in-game actions. I say it’s not necessarily a bad thing, as professional sports leagues refuse to place severe enough penalties to discourage such behavior. Where this gets a little tricky in this particular case is that Offerman had a baseball thrown at him. I would say with 99.99% certainty that Beech threw at the batter intentionally in the time honored (and stupid) baseball tradition of drilling someone after he, or one of his teammates, went yard on you. Could Offerman reasonably argue that he was assaulted? Would such an argument hold up in a court of law?

This is not to, in any way, condone Offerman’s actions. He obviously snapped. He should be banned from all professional baseball leagues permanently. However, pitchers have been intentionally throwing at batters for over a century and getting by with slaps on the wrist (how exactly is a five game suspension punishment for a guy who plays once every five games?). As I’ve said before, you don’t see hitters throwing their bats at pitchers after striking out twice in a row.

If that scenario sounds silly, that’s because it is. Too bad the reverse isn’t viewed as equally silly and has become an acceptable part of baseball.