June 12th, 2013
These brawls never seem to go well for the Dodgers. The boys in blue got into another brawl with a division rival on Tuesday night at the Ravine, but this time, Zach Greinke wasn’t dumb enough to charge into somebody and break his collarbone. Even though nobody was injured and the Dodgers won the game, that doesn’t mean it won’t prove to be costly for LA.
The Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig may be suspended for his role in the brawl, which would be another blow to a team that has been sinking faster than the Titanic. Puig has suddenly become the team’s best player, which explains why his teammates protected him after he was hit in the nose in the 6th inning on a pitch by D’Backs ace Ian Kennedy. Zach Greinke does deserve credit for fearlessly plunking Miguel Montero in the next inning, but the game of revenge should have stopped there. Greinke was plunked by Kennedy near his head in the bottom of the inning, which resulted in the bench clearing brawl.
The best part of the brawl was the fact that the old-timers on both sides took center stage. Mark McGwire tossed around Matt Williams, and Don Mattingly took down Alan Trammell. The only thing that would have made this more entertaining is if Charlie Steiner had stormed into the Diamondbacks broadcast booth and body slammed Bob Brenly.
Why the hell is baseball the only sport that allows this nonsense to go on? Even in hockey, where they allow fighting, they never allow the benches to clear. Then again, I’m trying to rationalize the rules of a league that refuses to eliminate cheating and use more instant replay to help its umpires. I forgot that Bud Selig must be trying to preserve “the purity of the game”.
Regardless of this ridiculous culture, pitchers should never throw at anyone’s head. They are messing with players careers when they do it, and they need to be punished for it. Ian Kennedy should be suspended for at least a month for doing this not once, but twice!
As for the Dodgers, the notion that “they finally put up a fight” is absurd. Most of the fight was handled by the old-timers on their bench anyway. That’s like your grandpa standing up for you when you’re getting your ass kicked in a bar by somebody half your size. The real fight these guys need to put up is in the batters box, where with the exception of Puig, the Dodgers have been getting a beat down.