Rock 'em Sock 'em....Athletes

I’d like to address an issue I believe has long been overlooked in the world of sports: Fighting.  And no, I don’t mean boxing, MMA, Taekwondo, or even the fake WWF wrestling or whatever abbreviation they choose to use any more.  I’m talking about fighting in the major sports where fighting has no place whatsoever.

Let’s start with America’s pastime: Baseball. Luckily we haven’t seen many issues this year, but a batter charging the mound and leading to a bench clearing brawl just leaves me shaking my head. What are you accomplishing? You threw at me, so I’m going to come throw haymakers your way? And think about it, the batter might get one swing in before being engulfed by four other players, so all the batter accomplishes is a lengthy suspension for him, the pitcher, and half the bench players who run onto the field. Yet the fans love seeing it. (If you type "baseball" into a youtube search, the site completes it to "baseball fights")

Actually, while on the subject of baseball, let me interject another type of baseball “fighting” that’s gone on long enough: coaches and players arguing calls. It’s one thing if you argue a call that can be appealed and changed, but something as pointless as arguing balls and strikes just makes me laugh. You’re going to get thrown out, period. How does that help the team? Coaches are getting thrown out on a weekly basis it seems…hardly an effective way to manage your team if you ask me.

Let’s move on to hockey. Olympic hockey is the best there is because there are no pointless scrums and fights. The NHL is full of fights, as players and fans say that a good fight will help motivate their team and wake up their fans. 

Let’s start with the assertion that a fight will motivate their team. Let’s look at a specific fight that affected the outcome of a game (supposedly). In game 6 of the 2009 Eastern Conference quarterfinals, the Flyers appear to be in control after going up 3-0 over the Penguins with 15:54 left in the 2^nd period. At 15:39, Daniel Carcillo and Maxime Talbot engage in a fight, which Carcillo clearly wins. The fight results in an even more excited Philly home crowd and Talbot telling them “shhhh!” At 15:25, the Pens score their first of five unanswered goals to win the game and the series.  If a fight will motivate my team, why would I ever “agree” to a fight when I’m up 3-0? And if the Pens are motivated by a fight that their teammate wasn’t even close to winning, why aren’t there ten fights during every hockey game? 

The answer is that the fight isn’t the motivating factor. In my mind it’s all about the fan reaction. Fans for some reason like seeing grown men on skates grab each other and try to throw punches. Carcillo wanted to pump the crowd up, Talbot to shut them up. They could have done the same with their play, and thus why a fight is pointless.

Pens vs. Isles this year featured one of the most penalty minutes in recent memory. It started from an earlier game when there was a collision in front of the Islanders’ net, which of course resulted in something resembling a rugby scrum combined with a boxing match. Then all of a sudden the two goalies begin skating toward each other and fight (Isles’ goalie Rick DiPietro smiling, making this fan think that a hockey player thinks it’s just “fun” to get into a fight…what’s that teaching us?). One punch and DiPietro is down, and he’d be out for the next six weeks. Was it worth it for him? How about Brent Johnson and the Pens? 

The next game between these two teams not only had fights at every whistle, but also had an Islander Micheal Haley, whose only job is to “enforce” (aka fight), get into a scrap with a Pens player, then after being separated from him by the referees he decides to go and fight the Pens goalie. That’s beyond wrong. That guy should never be allowed to play in a game, ever. Suspensions? Trevor Gillies (who threw an elbow high on Eric Tangradi and then started punching him while he was down) was given a nine game suspension. He also should never see the ice again (he’s not a hockey player…two goals in 39 games last year? He’s an “enforcer” only too! NOT A HOCKEY PLAYER!).  Haley (two goals and an assist in 27 games…another non-hockey player) was not suspended! A player got into a fight, was summoned to the penalty box, but instead of going he decides to go attack somebody else? That’s worse than a blatant blind-side hit to the head in my mind. 

I love reading the box score for these two players. Gillies had 1:40 of ice time, but 34 minutes of penalties. Haley had 5:31 ice time and 39 penalty minutes.  Wow.

The biggest suspension? Ten games, given to the Penguins’ Eric Godard for coming off the bench to intervene in the fight between Haley and Johnson. The NHL disciplinarian said "There can be no circumstance that allows for a player to leave his bench for the purpose of coming to the aid of a teammate." Yet you allow players to get into full melees to defend their goalie when he gets knocked over by an opponent PUSHED INTO THE GOALIE BY THE OTHER TEAM! Contradictory. I commend Godard for protecting his goalie, like he and all other hockey players are taught. 

What does it say that this game was considered the most exciting game of the year? More people wanted to watch this game (due to the almost certain fighting that would result after the goalie fight nine days prior) than the Stanley Cup Finals (until now, where I’ll guarantee ratings skyrocket after the blindside hit and 3^rd period brawls in game 3).  The score of these games? 9-3 and 8-1, respectively. Send a message by your play and your play alone. You won the game, and won big. There’s no need to cause brawl after brawl when your play has done that enough.

NBA. At least the full out punches being thrown from the “Bad Boy” days of 20 years ago is gone. But the tussles that result for pointless reasons are head-scratchers. I got fouled, so I’m going to go push some people around. I’m seven feet tall nobody’s going to stop me! And what’s the penalty for these on-court altercations? A technical foul. Big whoop. If I’m a player and that’s the penalty for giving somebody a bump after the play because they fouled me during play, my response would be, “Oh well I need six more before I miss a game!”

People like seeing these grown men cry and act like babies? Apparently, as the above youtube video showing the 2010-11 season’s “fights” has over 400 likes vs. 6 (now 7 that I’ve seen it) dislikes. And the NBA says they don’t condone this stuff? Letting them bump chests and trash talk and get into these altercations with the penalty being pretty much 1/7 of a suspension will do nothing to stop it from happening. Wake up.

Finally, NASCAR. I hear every week of a new fight with drivers (and now apparently owners, too). Racers spin each other out because they don't get penalized for it and won't crash themselves in the process. Then the following week when they are the ones getting spun into the wall they think they have the right to go attack somebody. Reporters discuss the fights and rivalries more than the racing itself. Again, if the fans and analysts want to worry about who's hitting who, then go watch boxing. (Seriously, how is boxing at an all-time low for ratings? every other sport has fights, fans want to see the athletes throwing punches without being restrained, so why not watch the sport that allows it?)  There's much better racing out there, but apparently fans like seeing racers throwing punches into the cockpit of another vehicle. Why? Beats the hell out of me.

Fans, if you want to watch fights, go watch boxing or MMA or something where fighting isn’t PART of the sport but the sport itself. If you want to watch hockey, baseball, racing, or basketball, then watch their respective professional (or preferably collegiate) leagues and DO NOT SUPPORT that which is not part of the game. There’s nothing in the rule book for these sports regarding fighting being legal, so why do we support it? I can’t wait until these playoffs are over so I don’t have to hear about who bit who and who fouled somebody too hard.