When considering what a just punishment for Delmon Young would be, it would be a good idea to think outside the realm of sports. Imagine if Young was an ordinary 20 years old, working at, say a restaurant as a busboy. What if his manager got angry at him for not cleaning a table right, but Young thought that he had done no wrong. What if the manager fired him and Young decided to fling a plate at the manager's chest. What would happen to Young then? He would be arrested and charged with assault and with a history of violent outbursts, as Young has, he would probably do some sort of jail time or at least get a good amount of probation. So what makes it okay for Young to take a bat, which can easily be considered a dangerous weapon, and throw it at a defenseless umpire? What if the bat had hit him in the face? Then what would have happened? This could have been a much bigger problem for Young than it already is.

Delmon Young is obviously a troubled young man. With all of his talent, it is sad to see that he is not able to control himself. It happens way to much in the world of sports, a young kid with a bad attitude gets a ton of money before his mature enough to handle it and the words of praise go straight to his head, giving him an even worse attitude, which leads to incidents such as this, where a player feels that he is larger than the game. It has happened so often, Milton Bradley, Jose Guillen, Ron Artest, Carl Everett, Frank Francisco (who threw a chair at a fan), the list goes on and on. Young has already shown signs of an emotional imbalance. He was suspended for three games by the Southern League for bumping an umpire.

There have been incidents with umpires like this in the past. Carl Everett was suspended for 10 games by the MLB for bumping an umpire while with the Red Sox, Roberto Alomar was suspended for five games for spitting on an umpire, Milton Bradley was suspended for seven games for spitting gum at an umpire while in the Eastern League, and Young's past incident, where he was suspended for three games. This offense is much worse than the other incidents. Young put the health of the umpire at risk, as he could have seriously injured the umpire with the bat. While the other incidents were disrespectful, none were as dangerous as Young's bat toss. While it may have been flipped at the umpire, it still could have injured the umpire badly. It is a thick wooden bat that could have done major damage to the umpire's mouth or other part of his face if it had gone just a little higher.

An incident that is better to compare this to is the Frank Francisco incident. The Texas Rangers middle reliever threw a chair into the crowd at a woman who was heckling him while in Oakland back in 2004. Francisco was suspended for 15 games, which was the amount of games remaining in the season. This incident compares to that incident, but also involves an umpire. The International League must make a stance, but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays must take an even stronger stance against Young. While the IL may only suspend Young for 15-20 games, which would be a suitable suspension for the offense, the Devil Rays should step up and end Young's season, suspending him for behavior detrimental to the organization. The Devil Rays cannot tolerate behavior like this. Young needs to grow up and he needs a kick in the rear from the Devil Rays organization to help him grow up. Young is a kid still and will miss baseball. Young still has a bright future in the MLB, but he needs to learn to control himself or his bright future will be over before anything ever came out of it. Young needs to get past the fact that he wants to be in the major leagues right now and learn to control his anger and respect the game he plays.