Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals and a view of the brawl
By Brian Draus
On Thursday night, the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox not only battled in a baseball game, but in a fight on the diamond as well.
This is becoming all too common for the Royals, whose success from last year’s playoff run seems to be going to their head.
Is fighting going to be an every-week occurrence for the Royals? If so, MLB needs to step in and do something about it.
Now, on to Yordano Ventura.
Every start he has pitched in, there has been an issue. Ventura is going to get himself seriously hurt or someone else injured. What is the answer to Ventura’s issues?
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MLB needs to come in and give him a 10-game suspension at the least. I realize that Adam Eaton is a scrappy player and might have gotten into his head a little bit. However, trying to pick a fight with Eaton wasn’t the answer at that moment.
Thursday’s brawl is something that MLB needs to be take seriously. In the early part of the season, which isn’t even three weeks old, there have already been too many confrontations.
That may have something to do with the fact that teams are playing their division rivals, where some bad blood may already exist.
On top of that, some of these teams are playing each other for the second time in the first month of the season. Such as the case with the Royals and White Sox, who played in Kansas City earlier in the month. In that series, there were many players hit, words exchanged, etc.
What happened Thursday night on the south side of Chicago could have turned out much worse had there been both significantly more Royals and White Sox fans in the seats.
Considering the fact that both the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks were playing playoff games at the same time as the White Sox game was happening, it was a sparse crowd at best. Had this been a warm summer night, the White Sox playing a bit better baseball and more fans in the seats, all it takes is one fan to get inebriated and throw something at Ventura or one of the Royals players.
We all remember what happened in Detroit a decade ago, and when athletes are fighting as well as fans getting fired up because of it, there can be bad consequences. This has a very small chance of happening, though it only takes one fan and one player to start an out-of-control scene.
It seems as though more batters are being hit by pitchers. I understand that pitchers may be pitching inside more often, which is due to the fact that the umpires are calling the inside strike.
When that happens, hitters get upset, leading to more confrontations. Not to mention the fact that baseball seems to be going in the direction of pitching, now that the steroid era is over.
While last night’s brawl between the Royals and White Sox wasn’t the worst, it is something that MLB needs to take a look at.
When a pitcher throws at a hitter, it can’t be tolerated by the league (even though Thursday’s brawl wasn’t started by a hit batsman).
A baseball being thrown at 95 MPH is a weapon, especially when it is directed at a batter’s head. As much as the hitter charging the mound is seen as the villain, throwing at batters is something MLB needs to get under control.
Something else MLB needs to do is educate young players on the “do’s and don’ts” of baseball, because if teams are going to play beanball all weekend due to a player getting taken out at second base, some of these players need to realize that hitting the culprit once is enough.
While I realize fights may be exciting for the fans, they risk injury to the players as well as violence in the stands. Hopefully the league can get some of this under control.
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