March 30, 200620 yr NEW YORK ? (AP) ? Boston Red Sox reliever Julian Tavarez was suspended for 10 days and fined Thursday for his role in a brawl this week. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president in charge of discipline, cited Tavarez for "violent and unsportsmanlike actions'' during Monday's game against the Devil Rays. Tavarez punched Tampa Bay's Joey Gathright lightly on the jaw after a play at home plate. The penalty would start next Monday, when Boston plays its season opener, unless the players' association appeals. Tavarez is with his seventh team in eight years and has been suspended four times, starting in May 1996 when he threw a pitch behind Milwaukee's Mike Matheny, sparking a brawl. Tavarez was suspended for three games. He was suspended for five games and fined $1,000 after a spring training melee in 2001 when San Francisco's Russ Davis charged the mound after striking out because he thought Tavarez, then with the Chicago Cubs, had shown him up. Tavarez was fined $10,000 by the commissioner's office in October 2004 for throwing a pitch over the head of Houston's Jeff Bagwell in Game 4 of the NL championship series. Earlier that season, he was suspended for eight days for applying a foreign substance to balls while pitching.
March 31, 200620 yr Some suspensions like this one need to be revised, some players like the one mentioned above (Julian Tavarez) are use to these suspensions, and somehow indications point to them not being harsh enough, but good job on the MLB doing something about these childish acts, they just need to become more strict than seen above.
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