Basebrawls

When I first started flying, people shared a theory with me that plane crashes happen in groups of three. Once there’s a plane crash, there are typically two more in quick succession. And then things settle down for a while.

Being the nervous flyer that I am, this was not a theory I needed to hear. If I had to fly shortly after there had been a couple of plane crashes, I was convinced my flight would be the third in the string. Never mind that I didn’t even need this theory to have that fear. Every time I fly, as the plane takes off, I am convinced I am experiencing my last day on earth.

What does this theory of threes have to do with brawls in baseball? Everything and nothing. Which could probably describe the relevance of most of my posts hereabouts.

I may be imagining it, but it seems that altercations in baseball come in similar groupings. Games can be played, won or lost, in a relatively calm fashion for weeks at a time and then suddenly there is a pitch thrown and a batter charges the mound, the benches clear. And then it happens the next day in a game involving other teams. And a couple of days later. And then calm resumes.

So we had a little bit of this a few days ago.

One of the most storied rivalries in Major League Baseball involves the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. I acknowledge here that I am biased, being a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan and believing that there is absolutely nothing good about the Dodgers, no redeeming quality about their players, their franchise, their fans. Nothing. They are evil personified.

The two teams have gone through phases of hate ever since they started play in Brooklyn (Dodgers) and New York (Giants) early in the 20th century. One of the “highlights” of the rivalry occurred in 1965 when Juan Marichal, a pitcher for the Giants, took a bat to Johnny Roseboro, the Dodgers catcher.

Here’s a pretty good story about the incident.

As the years have gone by, the rivalry cooled somewhat. For the most part, the teams have rarely been competitive at the same time over the last 50 years. If the Giants are winning the division, the Dodgers are at or near the bottom. And vice versa.

Lately, though the rivalry has been renewed, brought about by the Giants’ three World Series wins earlier this decade, the Dodgers’ dominating the division over the last five years, and a few “personalities” on each team.

Earlier this week, the teams squared off for three games down in Los Angeles, and in the second game, this happened.

Ever since Yasiel Puig started playing for the Dodgers, there has been tension between the two teams. He is, in my opinion, a drama queen, over-reacting in a self-absorbed way to what he does and doesn’t do while on the field. He has become public enemy #1 for many players on the Giants, and you can tell that when he is in the game, there is an edge to things.

The next night this happened.

The backstory to this incident is that Acuna, the Braves lead-off hitter, had hit home runs in his first at-bat in each of the last three games. This pitch was the very first of the game. A 97 mph fastball thrown with obvious intent.

And so, it’s brawl season again and sportswriters and sports fans everywhere are jawing about it. Something must be done! This must stop! At some point every year this debate rages and, every year, nothing happens.

Count me as somebody who doesn’t want to see action taken that is so severe that these incidents end. No, I don’t think pitchers should be throwing 97 mph fastballs at batters — there are plenty of things that pitcher did wrong. No, I don’t think batters should hit people with their bats.

But these sports involve athletes who play at the peak of their sport, they are hyper-competitive and have been for years and decades, and there are rules, both written and unwritten, that legislate these things. You show me up when you hit a home run by running too slow around the bases, your next at-bat I’m going to throw inside to remind you that I have the ball and you don’t. Come in hard on a slide at second base and your next at bat, I may send you to the dirt. Don’t show the other team up and things will be good.

Every once in awhile, it all boils over into a fight because somebody didn’t follow the “rules.” Yes, it’s archaic and out of step with the times and players can get hurt amidst all of this, but these interactions are as much a part of the game as balls and strikes. The competitive tension that is inherent in sports is what makes them worth watching and worth playing. In baseball, the plate is a battle zone between the pitcher and batter — a battle for who will control it, each and every pitch. And each pitcher and batter has their entire team behind them in that battle.

To legislate away that competitive tension, to take that battle out of the game, would essentially anoint a winner in the pitch-by-pitch war that is the foundation of baseball. The occasional brawls are a price to pay for allowing the competition and tug-of-war that exists in baseball.

(Side note: I can’t stand hockey fights, however, and think they are beyond stupid. Why? Because frequently, they are premeditated and staged and the referees don’t step in to stop them until somebody falls to the ice.)