Sunday, May 9, 2010

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Don't worry. Dave gave me a Mother's Day present. No fighting at our house.

But everywhere else I turn, the theme is fight night. It started with the Bruins vs. the Philaelphia Flyers game on Friday. Dave tried to convince me that hockey is basically soccer on ice (okay, that turned into a little fight). I made the point that there are no walls to slam the opposition into in soccer. And if there were, you would get a red card, not just a time out.**

Friday night also sparked the inevitable Red Sox-Yankee "you think they're gonna fight?" conversation. Pitcher Josh Beckett hit two Yankee players (Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter) and buzzed another (Francisco Cervelli) in the sixth. He also hit Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, so lets just say he made a few mistakes.

The Yankees didn't see it that way. Retaliation came in the third inning on Saturday. Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia drilled Dustin Pedroia with a fastball in the fourth.

 Then the game went to rain delay in the fifth. We were celebrating my aunt's birthday with my extended family and sat down to eat during the delay. Talk around the table was surprise that the benches hadn't yet cleared and speculation about when they would clear.***

Unfortunately the Sox got embarrassed before they could get rowdy.

In honor of Mother's Day, the players on both teams are wearing pink wristbands, and some are using pink bats- this is my kind of night.  No way there will be a fight tonight.

Which reminds me. Researching the rivalry for the last post, I read about quite a few on-field fights. Other than mommy saying no fighting, what are the rules about fighting in baseball?


*Beautiful earrings and a framed picture of my daughter for my office.
**Does the ref tell you to ruminate on what you did like Supernanny does?
***That led to an interesting reveal by my uncle about my grandfather. Turns out he and his brother used to be boxers. They would make $2 a fight (or a night... not quite sure).

2 comments:

  1. The unofficial rules of a baseball fight is that no one actually lands a punch. Usually a lot of pushing and shoving. Some wrestling around. But no punches. A guy can get hurt that way! Not the punchie but the puncher. If a guy ends up needing surgery to fix a toe after kicking a cooler (Ryan Madson RP Phillies) imagine the damage done if they punched a real person, who could punch back?! Just not worth the risk.

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  2. Terry,
    You are generally right about your "unofficial rules." However, take a look at these clips that don't follow such rules. The link may not last very long because MLB is very good at having such videos removed for copyright violations.

    http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/836917/

    Particularly awesome is Pedro's "no crying in baseball" line and of course Nolan Ryan!!

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