If you didn’t
see a clip of the baseball “brawl” yesterday in Pittsburgh, here’s what you
missed - in the top of the third, Milwaukee’s Carlos Gomez hit a deep fly to
center field that he thought was a dinger so he went into a slow home run trot,
a la Domingo Ayala, and hurt pitcher Gerrit Cole’s feelings because in fact,
the ball didn’t leave the yard. After
Gomez reached third on his inside-the-park triple, Cole ran towards, but not
too close to Gomez, shouting mean words in his general direction like an insulting Frenchman which in turn, hurt his feelings as well. This visibly upset
many of the other players and coaches who trotted on to the field somewhat
rapidly to air their grievances but this only lead to pushing and shoving and an all-out scuffle. Eventually, some players wrestled on the
grass and got stains on their bunched-up trousers. Oh yeah, and then the Brewers went on to win
an otherwise great game, 3-2 in 14 innings.
It’s just a
little too easy to poke fun at yesterday’s baseball fight because it’s a
reminder of how utterly pointless they are. The seminal confrontation in the
game is supposed to be between the pitcher and hitter, but not like this. As they stare each
other down, the hitter is thinking “c’mon meat, give me that trash” while the
pitcher is wondering “who are these buffoons who swing early at change ups and
chase sliders down and away?” There might be some contempt, but at least it's masked as respect - the results will flow down the river and out to the
sea of statistics that forever is the historical baseball record. That’s how the score is supposed to be settled.
But look,
baseball is played with passion and team spirit so there are times when a
breach of traditional baseball decorum warrants an extracurricular shot across
the bow. This is usually delivered with a
high and tight pitch or a plain and simple plunking. When done properly and with skill, there is a
poetic tit-for-tat and acknowledged "touché" that accepts, “ok you made your point
and we’ll continue this at a later time, but let’s move on with the business of
the day.” Like Hyman Roth waxing
eloquent after Moe Green’s hit in The Godfather Part II, “I wasn’t angry…I let
it go…this is the business we’ve chosen.”
Certainly a part of baseball’s beauty is the way the game has historically policed itself with such grace, the gentleman’s way, civilized and with few words. The last resort nuclear-option unfortunately has always been the on-field skirmish and its legacy is something we can't be proud of. Juan Marachal clubbing Johnny Roseboro on the head in '65, Nolan Ryan comically holding Robin Ventura in a headlock reigning down noogies in '93, the otherwise honorable Pedro Martinez face-planting the then 72 year old Don Zimmer in '03. Historically there has been little merit to these incidents, as it was in Pittsburgh yesterday. The problem today is exacerbated by a general impatience and an unflattering need we seem to have to tell everybody what bothers us, and right now at that. These baseball scenes reflect this sort of devolution of our social skills, D-E-V-O! What starts with a benign Gomez bat flip escalates to the point of a back-up outfielder, Travis Snyder, sucker punched amid the scrum by the other team's back-up catcher, Martin Maldonaldo. If there is any merit to the old hockey fight, it's at least an attempt to take it outside, inside, and let the matter be settled by the two primary combatants for the honor and glory of their team. Yesterday's fight only proved once again how shallow and pointless baseball confrontations are, even if you agree there is merit to fighting in sports. Like the need to tweet or post on Facebook about what they had for breakfast, Maldonado and Snyder had to make it about them, after both Gomez and Cole overreacted like children.
I think it's time baseball put an end to these foolish displays by imposing serious suspensions and fines for any players leaving the dugouts and bullpens or charging another player. We know from the instant-replay and catcher-collision revisions that you can't change long standing rules without affecting the game's DNA, but in this case, what is the cost?These incidents have never added anything to the game's appeal or soul.
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