Men Behaving Badly: Are Sports Fights Always Bad?

The phantom blogger is up from the ice, a day after licking his hockey wounds in a 4-1 Stars’ loss to Detroit on Thursday.

That was ugly. Detroit’s power play was, well, powerful.

But my attention has been briefly turned to baseball. Who’s the hottest team in the American League? Well, that would be the Boston Red Sox.

But, quick: Who’s got the second hottest club right now?

The Texas Rangers.

They’ve gone 7-3 in their last 10, and during a road trip nonetheless. Last night, they shut out Seattle for the second-straight evening, but this brawl got all the attention.

Richie Sexson charges the mound after Kason Gabbard threw at the catcher’s mitt. That’s right; the pitch was nowhere near Sexon, and the fight seemed like an orchestrated brouhaha to get the Mariners fired up.

Do I think that sort of thing works? Actually, I do. However, this brawl won’t do anything for the Mariners. Players have to pick their spots, and they have to be the right ones. According to Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve, the only guy hitting anybody was Mariners’ pitcher Felix Hernandez, who had apparently nailed two Rangers.

However, I’m a big believer in gimmicks. Anything to get the team more cohesive, and sometimes a little fight does ‘em good.

Not the lesson we want to pass to the kidows, but in the professional sports world, it’s not always a bad thing.