St. Louis Post-Dispatch
May 29, 2001

Tempers Rise in a Hurry When Morris Hits Batter

By Rick Hummel

When the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cardinals played last week in Milwaukee, six men were hit by pitches and the umpires issued warnings in every game.

At the time, Milwaukee manager Davey Lopes had said: "I don't give a damn if it becomes a bad-blood thing or not. In most rivalries, you don't like the people you're playing anyway."

It didn't take long for the two sides not to like each other Monday.

After the Brewers' Geoff Jenkins cranked a 400-foot-plus foul ball in the first inning, Cardinals starter Matt Morris hit Jenkins in the right shoulder with an 0-2 pitch.

Crew chief Jim McKean issued a warning to both benches, and Cardinals manager Tony La Russa emerged to debate the issue.

Suddenly, on-deck hitter Jeromy Burnitz and La Russa were embroiled in a quarrel, which caused both benches and bullpens to empty.

During the course of the scrum, Cardinals veteran extra man Bobby Bonilla straight-armed Burnitz, knocking his helmet off.

Burnitz, Bonilla and La Russa were tossed from the game.

Morris, explaining his position, said: " I throw a two-seamer in there, and he hits it. I've got that ego thing going. Being a power pitcher, I want to go in and make sure he can't hit my fastball.

"I'm not trying to do that (hit him intentionally). That's not the way I pitch. I'm trying to go in tight. That's part my plate, too."

McKean said he had been made aware there was bad blood between the teams but had not been instructed to issue a warning before the game.

"Tony comes out, and he's talking to me and all of a sudden Burnitz starts screaming at him from over the shoulder," McKean said. "And now Tony goes back at him, and now the riot starts.

"Then when we get in the pile, Bonilla pushed somebody in the face with his right arm.

"Tony gets ejected and Burnitz gets ejected because I feel they started the whole thing."

Lopes wasn't happy at all after the Brewers' 6-2 loss. Among his gripes was Burnitz being tossed when he wasn't quarreling with the umpire.

"That's the first time I've seen that," Lopes said.

"That's a tradeoff? He throws my cleanup hitter out because he's arguing with their manager?"

McKean said: "I can't go around looking for who's the best hitter or who's the best player. I've got to stop the situation and who directly causes me problems."

McKean, asked if he would have ejected Morris, said, "I start from scratch. If this is the third day it's been going on (in this series), then it's different."

But Lopes said: "I thought it was handled poorly. There should have been a warning given at home plate before the game started. By them not giving a warning, they gave the Cardinals a free shot.

"I don't care what La Russa says. Don't insult my intelligence. His guys never throw at anybody. Never. Right.

"(The umpires) had the opportunity to throw Matt Morris out of the game right there, and they didn't do it because they don't have the guts to do that."

La Russa said: "Burnitz was just yelling what Milwaukee is thinking - if we hit them, it's intentional. When they hit us, they're just pitching inside and the ball got away. "

On a lighter note, Blues defenseman Chris Pronger was in the stands.

"I know you're trying to get a hockey game going," Pronger said, jokingly to La Russa afterward. "I was close to coming over (the fence)."