Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee received a five-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for starting a fight with San Diego Padres pitcher Chris Young on Saturday, half the sentence Michael Barrett got last year for punching White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
Young also received a five-game suspension and a fine, though it really amounts to one game because he’s a starting pitcher who works once every five games. Lee and Young will appeal the suspensions.
Cubs hitting coach Gerald Perry also received three games and a fine from Major League Baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson for “aggressive actions” while trying to separate players from Lee.
Padres pitcher Jake Peavy and outfielder Brian Giles were fined for their roles in the fight but not suspended.
Giles was on the disabled list when he decided to join the fray, and was the only one of the five not ejected from the game.
Lee was with the Cubs in Texas on Monday and unavailable for comment.
General manager Jim Hendry is hoping Lee can reduce the sentence on appeal, but seemed relieved the penalty was not as severe as Barrett’s in ’06.
“I try not to ever get ahead of the decision being made, but I do feel Bob Watson and (baseball operations vice president) Jimmie Lee Solomon, working with (umpiring supervisor) Mike Port, did give a lot of consideration to Derrek’s character and his past impeccable credentials,” Hendry said.
“On the optimistic side, I’d hoped it would be a little less, but I do think Derrek’s good citizenship and the way he handled himself was a positive for him.”
Padres general manager Kevin Towers told the San Diego Union-Tribune that Young is likely to appeal to have both the suspension and the fine reduced, saying Young shouldn’t have been punished for defending himself from Lee, who took the first swing.
“Was he supposed to take a few licks? That could have ended his career,” Towers said. “If somebody takes a shot at him, he was protecting himself. If a player throws a punch at you, it’s human nature to protect yourself.”
Towers reiterated the Padres’ stance that there was no intent by Young to hit Lee.
“I know Derrek Lee as well,” he said. “He is a quality individual.”
On Sunday, San Diego manager Bud Black had said he would be surprised if Young were suspended. The Padres contended Young was simply pitching Lee inside.
In their discussions with MLB after getting a copy of the umpire’s report, sources said the Cubs argued that Lee’s history should be taken into consideration in the final decision.
They also pointed to comments by Peavy in Saturday’s San Diego Union-Tribune that suggested he would have hit one of Alfonso Soriano’s teammates if he’d been pitching after watching Soriano backpedal out of the batter’s box to initiate a home-run trot on Friday.
Peavy was involved in the scrum, though Black insisted he “was just trying to pull Derrek Lee off of somebody.”
“Jake told me he was trying to break it up,” Black said.
Perry, who was involved in a shouting match with umpires in the tunnel leading to the clubhouse on April 24, said Saturday he was simply pulling Peavy off of Lee and was shocked when he was ejected.
Crew chief Gerry Davis said afterward that Perry and Peavy were “just more aggressive than some of the others. We try to play policemen as much as we can in that instance, stop things from escalating any further. Those were two of those people we thought were a lot more aggressive than some of the others.”
Perry’s suspension will begin immediately, and manager Lou Piniella said Sunday he would act as hitting coach in Perry’s absence.
The question of whether the umpires could have intervened in time to prevent the fight has yet to be answered.
The Cubs were wondering how plate umpire Mike Everitt allowed Lee and Young to get close enough to fight each other when the umpires were aware of Peavy’s incendiary comments in that morning’s paper.
Black said he went out to discuss whether the ball that hit Lee’s left hand actually hit his bat and should have been called a foul ball.
Lee conceded the ball hit his bat, but after it hit his hand.
He said Saturday that he believed Young’s pitch was intentional.
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psullivan@tribune.com
