Baseball Bad Blood

With hockey season winding down and baseball season nearing its beginning, today is a slight shift towards that direction.  Fear not, for the hockey playoffs are around the corner, so there will be plenty of time to cover everything there.  Today's story comes from the conclusion of Spring Training, where Cleveland Indians pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez plunked Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.  That's only the beginning of the story, as the video shows (well, the best one, since the game was not televised):

As you can see, the hit by pitch caused a bench clearing.  Was the plunking intentional?  Rockies manager Jim Tracy seems to think so:

"Five days before opening day, you're going to take a pot shot like that? It's the worst I've ever seen. I've lost all respect for him, and that's a very difficult thing for me to say with all the players I've had to manage over the years," Tracy said. "I've lost all respect for him, every bit."

As for Jimenez, this year is clearly a make or break year, as he went from Cy Young candidate in 2010 to just plain stinking up the joint to the point of being traded to Cleveland prior to the trade deadline last year.  Obviously, he won't be winning any more friends in Denver, and there will be immense pressure for him to be the ace that he was and not the hot head that essentially pitched his way out of Denver.