Is there a constitutional right to be a big goof?

Joba Chamberlin isn't claiming the right, but he is firmly establishing his big goof credentials. When you've got a 100 mph fastball I suppose you can pump your fist over outs and scream and yell on the mound. After all, does a hitter really want to anger someone with a 100 mph fastball?

David Delucci of the Indians sounds like he might. Here's what he had to say after Chamberlin struck him out late in Thursday's game after giving up a pinch hit homer to him on Tuesday.

"If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout and dance around the mound, that's what gets him going," Dellucci said. "My home run was in a much bigger situation, a much more key part of the game, but I didn't dance around and scream."

American League baseball is softball on steroids so you can't really apply the normal rules of the game. AL pitchers can get away with anything on the mound, knowing they don't have to come to the plate. But even in the American League, there is a simple means of stopping the Joba Chamberlin show.

Throw at a Yankee. Not randomly, but soon after Chamberlin's show is over. And not just any Yankee, but Jeter or ARod.

Now Major League Baseball would say that is wrong. and suspend the pitcher who decked a Yankee. But with 12 man pitching staffs you probably have some reliever just up from Podunk you wouldn't miss for a couple of weeks if the ball happened to "slip out." In the meantime Jeter might decide this was an appropriate time to exert a stabilizing influence on Chamberlin, presuming he wasn't too sore to inhale or exhale.

But Chamberlin is just being himself, right? Joe Girardi, the Yankee manager went so far as to say "I can understand if you don't know a player's heart and you're not in the clubhouse -- you don't always understand," Girardi said. "You're not sure -- 'Are they showing me up or are they not?' I don't believe Joba is ever showing anyone up. I think that's Joba's emotion."

Substances emitted from the hindquarters of cattle.

This isn't Dr. Phil. This isn't the dancing circus of the NFL. This isn't basketball where college players pull on their jerseys for hitting a jumper which a retired insurance salesman can nail three out of four tries.

This is baseball and what Chamberlin is doing isn't baseball.

For one thing, would anyone put up with his showing up opponents if his ERA was 4.27? And what is going to happen when hitters start strutting the bases after home runs like so many roosters on parade?

Don't get me wrong. Chamberlin is a great pitcher and a pleasure to watch. But the act wears thin. If you let him get away with it other young pitchers will start up down the road, hitters are going to strut their way around the bases, and the next thing you know you've got worse fights and some serious throwing at hitters.

As the great philosopher Bernard P. Fife once said, "Nip it. Nip it in the bud." After all, a ball is just a ball, but a pitch can serve a purpose.