Three things I learned during Sunday night’s Yankees-Red Sox game.

1. The AL East seems a lot like the Wild, Wild West some nights.

Vigilante justice is alive and well in baseball. Watch Red Sox Pitcher Ryan Dempster plunk the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez in his first at bat Sunday night. An innocent errant throw? Or, a pitcher meting out his own brand of punishment to a cheater?

Watch it here.

While Major League Baseball has suspended A-Rod (pending appeal) for his use of performance-enhancing drugs, that punishment, maybe, isn’t enough for some players. Or, perhaps, the recent reports of A-Rod ratting out other players in an effort to protect himself, spurred the pitch.

They call them “message pitches”.  (Because baseball has a name for everything.)

Or, maybe it was an accident. Dempster pops, on average, five batters a season, so maybe A-Rod just came up at the wrong time.

In any event, for those people who think baseball is boring, they are missing out on all sorts of crazy intrigue and drama. Where one single pitch – in a game that had 342 – can be filled with meaning.

For more, check out the always brilliant Jason Turbow of The Baseball Codes on the Dempster/A-Rod drama. Click here.

2. Baseball can unfold like a Movie of the Week. 

He may be a cheater, but after getting hit by a pitch and enduring a thunderous Fenway-full of boos, Alex Rodriguez seemed more like a victim last night. The victim of bullying by a team and a town.

So, you sort of had to smile (just a little bit, just a tiny bit, just a little “I really shouldn’t, but I just can’t help myself” teeny, weeny bit) when A-Rod came up again and crushed one – just crushed it – 446 feet into the seats. (The longest homerun of the season for a Yankee.)

Watch it here.

Because, sure, no one likes a cheater. Or, a rat. But, remember, no one likes a bully either. And, everyone knows, bullies never win in the movies.

3. Even if you’re in a hurry, always, always take time for Spell Check.

(Go O’s!)