Baseball is not typically a contact sport. Typically, it is a sport that relies on your hand-eye coordination to succeed. A pitcher pitches the ball and the batter has to hit it into play hoping to reach base safely. Sometimes, though, a batter is hit and tempers flair, as the batter charges the mound or shares words with the pitcher. Another case scenario, though, would be for a batter to just calmly walk to first base. That is what happened in a game this past weekend between the Blue Jays and Rangers.
Late in a one-run game between the two teams, pitcher Matt Bush hit Blue Jays' slugger Jose Bautista with a pitch that would send the outfielder to first base. What happened next would result in a brawl that will be talked about for some time. Bautista proceeded to take off on a grounder and slide into second with, what seemed to be, a very late slide into the legs of Rangers' second baseman, Rougned Odor. Odor followed up his throw to first with some words to Bautista before punching him in the face, knocking his sunglasses and helmet off at impact. This would then lead to a bench clearing brawl that would involve many players from each team.
Now, many have analyzed this incident over the past week and many have their opinions, but here is mine. It is good for baseball. Many may look at me and say "are you kidding me?" To them, I say no, just look at the publicity over the past week for baseball. It has reached a point that has not been reached for a very long time in baseball. People all over the country are talking about the punch, they are talking about baseball. Even my girlfriend, who does not watch sports that much, asked me if I had seen the punch. People are talking about baseball because this was exciting.
Another reason this is good is because it sparks a rivalry, something that has been dwindling in the major leagues for quite some time. What happened to the days of villains and good guys? What happened to the days of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalries that would have brawls and hatred ringing throughout each and every series? There is not enough hatred in the MLB right now. Not enough excitement. People won't sit down and watch a rivalry game for the excitement and intensity because it isn't there anymore. This could bring back rivalries, bring back intensity, bring back excitement throughout the MLB. That is the only way that the MLB will continue to interest people. We need teams to start hating each other and players to be villains again.
In the end, I am not saying that violence is the answer to the MLB's interest problem. It is more than that. But look at what has happened this past week and tell me that it was not interesting. In a time that is supposed to be filled with NBA and NHL playoffs, an early season baseball game became the talk of the sports world. If you like baseball, you cannot help but hope that this brawl brings more attention to baseball because the sport is slowly declining in popularity and it needs something, anything, to help it regain that extreme popularity it had years ago.
