Dennis Santana joined the Pirates in June of 2024.
Major League Baseball has announced it is suspending Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher, Dennis Santana, four games as well as fining him an undisclosed amount for aggressive conduct towards a fan.
The suspension stems from an argument Santana seemingly had with a Tigers fan while in Detroit for a three-game series.
A separate fan caught the whole incident on video, which certainly doesn’t help the fiery pitcher’s cause.
It’s not exactly “Malice At The Palace” levels of athlete-on-fan violence, but I think the league is doing the right thing by handing down a four-gamer.
Admittedly, it is hard to tell what sets Santana off, but as you can see in the video, he calls the police officer over with him to point out the fan before taking a swing at him.
What’s perhaps most impressive is the height Santana gets on his jump; just look at that vertical!
Who says pitchers aren’t athletic?
Also, why does Santana call the police over and then take a swing at the fan? He probably shouldn’t incriminate himself like that in front of law enforcement but, hey, sometimes the heat of the moment gets to all of us, and we make stupid decisions.
Santana issued a statement in the clubhouse after the game and said, through a translator, that he felt the fan “crossed the line a few times.”
Santana is apparently appealing the suspension, although it’s hard to argue with the ample video evidence available on social media.
Unless the league finds out what the fan did to provoke Santana into swinging at him, I doubt he’ll win his appeal.
The fan in question was removed from the game, as I am sure the Detroit Tigers, as well as the league as a whole, take a no-tolerance stance on harassing players.
This will surely bring back the age-old argument of fan access to players, a discussion that seemed to reach its zenith in the aftermath of the aforementioned “Malice At The Palace” brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons back in 2004 which also, coincidentally, took place in the Motor City.
One thing that’s for sure, though, is the Tigers fan in question won’t be getting near any baseball players for a very long time.
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