One strike and you're out.

Or maybe "Take me out of the ball game."
Or maybe "Seventh Inning Prison Stretch?"

Delmon Young, a minor league ball player for the Durham Bulls was suspended for 50 games just days after he hit an umpire with a thrown bat after taking a called third strike.

This guy should be arrested for assault and sent to jail. It's time to stop allowing major sports organizations to continue to punish internally for what would be a felony outside of the organization.

You can read some of the stories here and here.

You can see the video of the incident here. You don’t see him actually throw the bat but he walks off to the left of the screen and you see the bat come flying back and hit the umpire after bouncing off the ground.

Okay, 50 games is a lot. He made a quick and fairly complete apology. It’s believed to be the longest suspension in the International League’s 123-year history and it will probably cost Mr. Young around $145,000.

And yes, if you or I did it the fine probably wouldn’t be nearly that much. But you know what the difference would be?

We would have a criminal record. How much might that cost us over the course of our lives?

I’m so tired of athletes throwing a temper tantrum to eclipse that of any toddler in the full-on throes of the “terrible twos” and then turning around and saying “oops, my bad, I didn’t mean it.” You know what? You DID mean it. You may not have meant to get in so much trouble over it, but you definitely meant to do it.

And you should pay for it like the rest of us…No more special favors just because you’re an “athlete”.