Baseball fans, and really fans of any sport, like a good brawl. Team vs. team, everyone squaring off on the field of play and winging punches. Baseball brawls are different from most of the other sports fights. The batter usually gets plunked by a pitch and he makes the quick decision to charge the mound. It takes less than five seconds for the better part of both teams to arrive at the mound, players from both teams come charging from the bullpens about 100 yards away, and all hell is breaking loose. It looks scary just watching it on television because the players do not know who is coming from your blind side or from behind you and cheap shots abound.
Such was the case yesterday when Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals was hit in the right hip by a 97 MPH fastball thrown by the San Francisco Giants Hunter Strickland. Harper charged the mound and it was a rare case where punches were actually landed by both Harper and Strickland before the mound pileup ensued. When all of the other players arrive is when it gets dangerous as evidenced by Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzjia slamming his shoulder into Giants outfielder Michael Morse's jaw trying to get to Harper. Morse ended up on the seven day concussion disabled list as a result.
Order was restored on the field, suspensions were handed down by the league after the game, and the combatants were saying the right things after the game. The players say the event is over, the problems are solved, but it was also an event that dates back about three years. Harper hit two homeruns off of Strickland in a game about three years ago and this was evidently a little bit of payback because of Harper's perceived unprofessional actions after those homeruns. Baseball players have long memories.
