Don Cherry coached the Colorado Rockies for one season — the hockey team, not the baseball franchise — but clearly that was enough to qualify him to go on Tuesday’s Twitter rant about Bryce Harper and the dysfunctional Washington Nationals.
The former Boston Bruins coach, known now as a bombastic Canadian broadcaster with outrageous suits and opinions, unleashed a nine-tweet outburst insisting that Harper, the NL MVP frontrunner, should not have skated freely away from his recent dugout tussle with Nats closer Jonathan Papelbon.
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The Nationals suspended Papelbon four games for choking Harper in plain sight in the dugout after an in-game dispute on Sunday. But Cherry, 81, said on his Twitter handle @CoachsCornerCBC that Harper also deserved plenty of blame and that Papelbon was partly justified in his actions given that Harper had violated a players’ code last week.
Harper had expressed frustration last Wednesday after Papelbon was ejected for hitting Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado.
“I don’t know, I’ll probably get drilled tomorrow,” Harper said.
Papelbon is serving a seven-game suspension in all, including a three-game suspension from Major League Baseball for throwing at Machado, meaning his season is over. Cherry, however, doesn’t believe that tells the whole story.
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“I suppose everybody has seen Papelbon and Harper and their little dispute in the dugout,” Cherry began. “Papelbon was suspended for the year actually by the team and the league. How anybody could blame Papelbon for confronting Harper boggles the mind.
“Alright, Papelbon shouldn’t have done what he did to Harper on the bench,” he continued. “He could have waited for him in the tunnel and choked him there. For Harper criticizing his own teammate publicly, and that’s the word, publicly, for throwing at Machado saying now they will throw at me next game. Can you imagine how Papelbon felt when he heard that?
“He’s having a tough time this year anyhow, now the so called face of baseball throws him under the bus, his own teammate,” Cherry went on. “People who criticize Papelbon, rightly so for doing it openly, never played the game. Never, never, ever openly criticize your teammate no matter what he does. In the dressing room that’s ok, yes but what is said in the dressing room stays in the dressing room,” Cherry added.
