Sports Radio Interviews

Jim Riggleman on Nyjer Morgan: “He’s got a little bit of a target on his back now”

It’s safe to say that Nyjer Morgan is not making too many friends around Major League Baseball nowadays. There are rules in baseball and there are unwritten rules. In the case of Nyjer Morgan, he has violated many of those “unwritten rules” in the last week. He’s gotten into it with fans, his own manager, and various members of the opposing team.

The other night, Florida pitcher Chris Volstad became one of those guys that was not very happy with Morgan. Volstad hit Morgan earlier in the game. Then when Morgan took first base, he then decided to take second and third as well and this made the pitcher upset. As you can hear Jim Riggleman in the interview, if you’re going to throw at a guy and purposefully put him on base, don’t complain if your catcher can’t throw him out. Nonetheless, in his next at bat, Volstad threw behind Morgan, Morgan charged the mound and started an all-out brawl between the Nationals and the Marlins for which he is now going to be suspended for eight games.

Jim Riggleman joined 97.5 the Fanatic in Philly with Mike Missanelli to talk about the incident between the Nationals and Marlins, the unwritten rules of the sport, the etiquette involved in the bench clearing brawl, his relationship with Nyjer Morgan, and talks about the surgery to Stephen Strasburg.

On defending Nyjer Morgan and his decision to steal:

“Yeah you know I think we knew there was a possibility that they were going to throw at Nyjer, they did, they hit him, and Nyjer went to first base. Whether or not they were going to continue to hit him when he came up I’m not sure, but I guess whether him stealing the bases made them feel like we’re going to hit him again, maybe that’s the way they felt. But for me once you put him base, if you decided to hit him, what he does once he’s on base is his business and our business. I thought they had no right to throw behind him on the second occasion. When Nyjer went out after the pitcher I certainly don’t condone that because not only are a lot of people get possibly hurt and suspensions take place, but that’s just not good for baseball. We don’t want brawls and I would rather that we just get the opportunity to throw at one of their guys rather than him charge the mound, but I do understand why he did that. He got hit once, he got one thrown behind him and he decided enough is enough.”

On being okay with Nyjer Morgan stealing those two bases:

“My feeling about it is if we we’re ten down or ten up, I said okay look we’re not running. I don’t care what the other team does. If they run that’s their business and if I run that’s my business. I just generally don’t run when I’m way up or down in a ballgame. I just don’t see the logic in it. However, in this case, if you hit my guy and now he steals the bases I’m fine with that because if you’re going to hit him, you want him on base, then you may have to pay the price for it by giving up some runs.”

On the relationship between Nyjer Morgan and himself:

“Nyjer is fine with me. When he had the incident against the Cardinals, I disciplined him by not playing him the next day and that was also for the purpose of not allowing him to be thrown at. I know they would’ve thrown at him. I just said I’m not gonna throw him up there and let him be a target so I didn’t play him. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about that but he was right back in there the next day. He’s played hard, he’s playing well, the incident just so happens it comes up again and he was coming home and this one was one where Nyjer truly felt I’m not going to be safe so I have to dislodge the ball and we see it happen a lot of times, but because it’s happened a couple times in the last few days backed up against the Cardinals incident, he’s got a little bit of a target on his back now.”

Listen to Jim Riggleman on 97.5 the Fanatic in Philadelphia here

Tags: 97.5 the Fanatic, Jim Riggleman, MLB, Nations-Marlins brawl, Nyjer Morgan, Washington Nationals