the lost art of the fight

what ever happened to sports that fighting is now the worst thing imaginable? hockey is complaining about getting too violent, and now they want to crack down on fights. football is making more and more rules about how you can hit quarterbacks, and pretty soon you wont be able to look at the QB without getting penalized. baseball, the least physical sport of the major athletic events, has lost the spark in the bench clearing brawls as well.

today, Easter Sunday, while the Red Sox were playing the Halos, an incident occurred. pitcher Josh Beckett was going from the stretch, eying down the runner on second base. this took about 10 seconds out of the game, but during this time span, the batter Bobby Abreu called for timeout. the umpire granted time for Abreu, but as he did, Beckett was already in his windup delivering home, and the end result was a 95mph fastball up in Abreu's grill. this whole thing sparked the benches of both clubs emptying, both bullpens emptying (returning back to the bullpen then coming back!), and the ejection of 4 Angels.

it gets you thinking though, how much does it take for you to be set off into fightback mode? for some,including myself, its the drop of a hat that can mess up your entire day. for others, it takes a little more than one negative nancy to ruin things. of course, a heater near my face may cause me to lose my temper (and i bet it would be similar for you too), but is that the end of the world? of course not, it didnt hit you, it didnt hurt you, so shake it off and step back up to the plate. if the entire world was built in the mindset of a baseball fight, wars would be happening as often as a ball player spits his dip.

to me, its amazing what the game of baseball can teach, especially on things totally unrelated to the game. the best lessons in life are taught by sports, and thats why i think many people watch. of course, everyone still watches NHL to see two shmucks get the shit beat out of them, but other sports can provide guidance in your life. think about that the next time you watch a game.

by the way, the Sox lost today 5-4.