Paper revisits former college player who was intentionally beaned while on deck

Hondo, I think it was you who asked how come Christensen wasn't arrested. That's easy. No one didn't think of doing when it happened.

Personally, I would rather see a player get tossed, suspended, or even banned from a game and sport, than calling the cops to charge him for the sake of appeasing shocked fans (Bertuzzi and McSorley).

Believe me, everyone in the MVC fucking hates Wichita with venom. It's too bad that UNI is dumping baseball after this season. Seeing Wichita come to Waterloo/Cedar Falls was a pleasure to watch and boo Stephenson and his thugs.

The Missouri Valley has a reputation of not punishing teams or players for memorable ugly incidents (see Bright, Johnny and Okie State).

The DSM Register did a story on the incident several months ago. Wilbanks Smith, the Okie St. player who sucker punched Bright was interviewed.

Not surprisingly, he sounded unrepentant of what he did, only questioned why everyone expected him to be remorseful nearly 50 years after the fact.

MVC punishment = FAIL when it comes to having balls.

 

Bulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllshit.

That shit happens in Evansville, and not only does asshole Christensen get arrested, he'd do time in the Indiana Department of Corrections.

Anthony Molina was the first guy I ever interviewed in the first "real" sportswriting job I ever had. As previously stated, he was intense. He also had major league potential. The Evansville coach moved him from catcher to third base because he wanted to turn a .350 bat into a .400 bat. Anthony had every tool but speed.

Then this cocksucker and his cocksucker coach pulled this bullshit "code" stuff out in Wichita and "accidentally" beaned Molina, who must've really been timing those pitches hard since he WASN'T EVEN LOOKING AT CHRISTENSEN WHEN HE TOOK ONE IN THE EYE.

Fuck you, Christensen. Fuck you, Stephenson. And fuck you, Wichita State.

Every year, when you get knocked out of the NCAA tournament, I go buy a round at a bar.

Cocksuckers.

(Also, a writer at the Wichita paper defended Christensen after the accident. That guy knows who he is. Fuck him, too.)

 

Wichita State's pitching coach who was suspended for a year took the fall for Gene Stephenson, Brent Kemnitz, is still on WSU's staff. He was as unrepentant at the time as anyone.

As one might imagine, there's no mention of the incident or suspension in his official bio.

The MVC honored Stephenson a few years ago at its centennial anniversary celebration, which was attended by the media and coaches from all of the various sports. I wasn't the only one who refused to clap for him in St. Louis that night. It was a bullshit move by the MVC to fete him.

That incident will chase (stalk?) Stephenson to his grave and is a much bigger part of his legacy, in my mind, than his CWS title.

 

I hate to keep being the guy to step in on stuff like this, but the story needs to be as straight as possible.

"Major-league potential" is *really* stretching it for Molina. He had a chance to be a very-late round pick, but there was also a chance he'd go completely undrafted. He was very likely going to be low-A roster fill.

 

Listen to the head coach, Gene Stephenson. AS Anthony Molina lay in a hospital, maybe blinded forever, 23 stitches in his face, his left eye socket fractured--his doctor said it was as if he'd been hit by a sledgehammer--Stephenson said:

"Let me tell you something. Nobody intentionally hit someone else. Hey, we're the ones that got hurt out of the deal. No one directed him to hit anybody. Do you have any idea how stupid that would be on our part?"

No Wichita player was nearly killed that day. So when the coach says "we're the ones that got hurt," presumably he's upset about the 3-1 loss after Christensen's ejection and a mandatory four-game beanball suspension. Such idiocy is symptomatic of the defeat-is-death philosophy fashionable among cut-throat coaches. No surprise to hear it from the creator of a big-money program that is Wichita's only claim to NCAA prominence.

 

And we all know the answer to the question in the last graf.

 

As I said on another thread or three, and the burro upon which he rode.)

 

And fuck baseball's unwritten rules.

 

SP, you've repeated that several times. There's no "code" about beaning the friggin' on-deck hitter, no matter what excuse Christensen or Stephenson would like you to believe.

It's criminal, and it has nothing to do with "unwritten rules."

 

Well, that's the excuse they've been using.

 

Or, he could have been of the many undrafted or 28th round players to make it big. Ever hear of Mike Piazza?

 

Their excuse is bullshit. It's an unwritten rule they made up as Molina was writhing on the ground.