Pero...
I don't condone Offerman's actions in the least, but I understand. This is just another of baseball's double standards and it's been getting out of hand.
How is it a double standard?
Brushbacks and hit batters are all messages that have been in use for over a 100 years in baseball. That's not a double standard, it's the "unwritten rules".
If the commissioner (MLB) had to police the game in a fashion where players are fined or reprimanded for celebrations and whatnot we'd have another police state sport. Baseball is delicious in this way, it polices itself.
Soriano used to do the bat flip and canter around the bases after a home run. That stopped pretty quickly after Torre warned him, the MFY's traded him, and he was getting drilled in the back on his next at bat time and again. I absolutely and positively condone that.
Oh, and he doesn't do that anymore.
My belief is that football (NFL) has run this precarious "police-state" route and they fine players for excessive celebrations and whatnot. I find that expression on the field to be unsportsmanlike and I want nothing more than a huge lineman to come rumbling down, pick up the wide receiver that made the play and plug him up to his neck in the endzone. I despise that ludicrous chest pumping.
Baseball doesn't allow that and it isn't because of fines (like those fines cause ANY heartache to the offender?!) it's because those that respect the game keep the young in line - the unwritten rules.
That's not a double standard, that's kids figuring it out themselves before some indignant parent decides to come in and levy punishment.
The two sports are clearly different in respects to maturity as NFL'ers have high profile rookies that contribute, whereas in baseball you've got to beat the bushes and earn the title of ML'er.
my2sense.