Sox’s Dempster Fined and Suspended 5 Games

In the eyes of the Commissioner's office, throwing at A-Rod is about 10 percent as bad as using performance enhancing drugs. After all, if you're caught using PED's, you will be suspended for 50 games. Ryan Dempster, "allegedly" threw at A-Rod and was suspended for 5 games and fined an undisclosed amount of money.

To Dempster's credit, he claimed he was trying to work A-Rod in. The first pitch went behind him, and the other two were inside. The fourth pitch plunked him in the elbow and ribs. Yep, it was just a little inside :)

Yankees manager Joe Girardi was quoted as saying "It would be open season on Rodriguez, if Dempster wasn't suspended", which leads me to ask "Is that a bad thing?"