Talk about harsh

Dave Duncan is not very happy with the 4-game suspension he was handed last night by MLB for his part in the little altercation from a week ago. He has some harsh words for our manager:

(I'm) still confused as to what I did to get suspended and fined... When you look at the guy, Lloyd McClendon, who seems to think the way to manage a ballclub is to intimidate his players (and) other teams - is to intimidate somebody - and he gets virtually a slap on the wrist," Duncan said when reached at the team's hotel in Houston. "He's the most responsible for what happened because of the approach he took, because of the way he handled it... Lloyd McClendon is an idiot. This guy is off the wall. It was completely different than what he thought happened... When I was informed of what (Major League Baseball) had decided, I was shocked. To think that I had had a conversation with a player that I had previously coached - not a threatening conversation, not a warning conversation, but a casual conversation with a player I had previously coached. And somebody that I considered a friend. And to be confronted and called out by the manager of the opposing team, in front of our team, embarrassed by the approach he took and challenged by him in front of our team. And then sucker-punched by one of his thug coaches. And I get suspended?

Wow. Duncan goes on to say that he believed that White dusted Luna on orders from McClendon and he was telling him that if that's how a hard, clean slide is responded to, don't be surprised if the Cardinals responded the same way to a hard slide by the Pirates.

Now, I saw the video of the incident. White and Duncan's conversation seemed to be far from friendly to me. In fact, when Perry came over and hit Duncan (which he definitely did do), it looked like he had to wedge between Duncan and White, so I don't think Duncan is entirely blameless here. What I do know is that if that if Duncan's quote is indicative in any way of how we're viewed by other teams across the league, our problems run a lot deeper than the black eye we're going to take for this if the story hits any major media outlets.