Major League Baseball: Sure to Provide a Brawling Good Time

Ah my first baseball bench clearing brawl, I remember it as if it were yesterday.

It was a typical summer day in 2000 when Pedro Martinez took the mound in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (excuse me, they are now just the Rays, they changed their name for obvious reasons.....I'm just not sure what they really are....). Pedro had only thrown three measly pitches before innocently plunking Gerald Williams on the hand. Gerald did what most level headed grown men do when someone gives them a boo boo, he charged the mound and started the first bench clearing brawl of maybe one of the best games I have ever seen. Not only did the Sox win 8-0 but by the end of the game, there had been 2 bench clearing brawls, 8 Rays ejected, four players hit by pitches, and a handful of Sox players sent to the hospital (www.sptimes.com). That game had everything baseball should be about, good pitching, lots of runs scored (by the Sox naturally), and fights.

Luckily for me, the Sox are one of the scrappiest teams in the major leagues and a few days ago, they made me a proud momma again by getting in a bench clearing brawl with, who else, but the Rays. This one wasn't as much of a spectacle as the one in 2000, but Coco Crisp did land a pretty good punch on their starting pitcher's jaw which I saw about a thousand times (thanks for in depth coverage Sports Center. Copy and paste the link below into your browser to see the actual fight. I can't figure out how to link yet, I'm a work in progress).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbfQEs6tWAE

But with all the fighting going on in baseball, many people have called for baseball brawls to stop. They want harsher punishments for those who charge the mound, throw a punch, and a general no fighting rule for baseball,

To which I have to reply, are you people insane!? You can't get rid of fighting in baseball! Taking the brawls out of baseball is like taking away apple pie from America, they just go hand in hand, you can't do it. Some of the best moments in baseball have happened because of brawls. Think back to 2004 when the Red Sox were starting to fall apart in July and Jason Varitek, the Captain and catcher of the team, started a fight with ARod when he looked as if he were going to attack Bronson Arroyo. Sure he was suspended four games but that was the same game where the Red Sox started to chip away at the Yankees A.L East lead and eventually ended up turning their season around and securing a Wild Card spot. I don't think that would have happened unless Jason Varitek had done something to get the team riled up. And with a bunch of testosterone filled jocks in your clubhouse, what else is going to get their blood boiling? A trip to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway? A sing a-long to the Newsies? I don't think so, what's going to get them fired up is a good ol' fight. And maybe a steak. I don't why, but guys really really love biting into a half cooked piece of cow.


photo from bostondirtdogs.boston.com

So this is what I have to say to the baseball gods: Work on cutting down the time it takes to complete a game. Get rid of that stupid "Take me out to the ball game" song. And please, permanently remove Jim Kaat, Tim McCarver, and those Sunday Night Baseball dudes on ESPN, but leave the brawls alone. Fights in baseball are just apart of the game and I would be more concerned if players were not throwing a few punches everyone once and a while. You fight when you care about what you are doing. So if players are showing their love for the game through a brawl every once and a while, then so be it. I would be more concerned if a player wasn't protecting his pitcher from getting hit or charging the mound when he he feels that he has been wronged, because that means his heart isn't in the game and you don't want to see that either. So I say let 'em fight and let them play ball!