Friday, July 25, 2008

The Latest Incident of Arguing/Fighting in Minor League Baseball

It's become almost a cliche now in sports. You watch Sportscenter or local sports or even see on the internet the latest incident that goes on in minor league baseball. Most of the time, it's the manager throwing a fit and upstaging the umpire. But this time, it was in my mind ridiculous. During the first inning of a game between Dayton and Peoria (two Class A teams), the managers for both teams got into an argument with the umpire. They then started pushing each other which then led to a brawl. In the midst of this brawl, a pitcher for Peoria threw a baseball intending to hit a player from Dayton. Instead it went sailing into the stands and hit a fan who was there with his wife and kids. The fan was taken to the hospital and the player was later charged with assault. It was so bad and involved so many players that there were 15 players ejected but were reinstated just so they could finish the game.

Here's video of the incident:


My take on this: it is sad that is what minor league baseball has come to be known for. Growing up, I didn't live in an area with a major league baseball team. So if I wanted to go to a baseball game, it was to a minor league game. The team in Nashville (the Sounds) were a Class AAA organization (affiliated with the Reds when I was little then later the White Sox and now the Brewers) that me, my dad and my brother would go and watch. It was fun and the games were good. There was none of this nonsense of trying to shock or do crazy things like there seems to be today. It was about the game. That's something that has gotten lost and should be looked at again. I hope that the players involved learn a lesson from this. Playing sports at a professional level is a privledge and not a right. If they continue to have an attitude like, they will not have that privledge for long.

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