The baseball world is full of surprises. Over the years, we’ve seen many unexpected things take place, and 2009 has been no exception to the rule. One of the most common occurrences in 2009, relative to other years, has been batters being hit by pitches.

Many batters take hit pitches gracefully, holding back the pain, but it isn’t generally this easy. Any ball traveling at such high speeds (90+ MPH) is going to hurt anyone, no matter how well built they are.

This year (2009) there have been a ton of batters hit by pitches, some resulting in injuries, ejections, fines, and the occasional fight/revenge. Most of the time when a batter is hit it is because the pitcher lost control of the pitch but then there is always the reason of taking out the other team’s players or rivalry.

This year, hundreds of batters have been hit by pitches, some more remembered than others such as Scott Rolen getting struck in the head by a pitch, injuring him for more than a couple days. And then there’s the time the pitch was thrown at Dustin Pedroia’s head and he ducked and it missed him, but then the next pitch was placed right below that and beamed him in the side.

Another more recent incident that riled up baseball fans was Prince Fielder’s hit by pitch situation. The Brewers led the Dodgers 17-4 late in a meaningless game, and Manny Ramirez was hit by a pitcher for the Brewers.

Exacting revenge, Guillermo Mota of the Dodgers attacked Prince Fielder once he arrived at the plate with a pitch that hit Fielder in the side of the body. While Fielder didn’t react after the incident, once the game had ended, Fielder charged the Dodgers’ dugout, looking for Mota.

This isn’t the first time that a player has sought out Mota after the end of a game, and many believe that Mota’s act was intentional. Fielder clearly thought this too, as he hadn’t reacted this way during any of his other 7 hit by pitch situations in 2009.

Fielder may have been somewhat out of line in doing what he did, but he was right to stand up to a growing trend of pitchers putting the well-being of batters at risk by going after them with the ball. Hopefully commissioner Selig will take notice.