Yesterday's Cardinals Rain Delay prompted FSN Midwest to play replays from last season and interviews with players. One of these replays was the brawl between the Reds, sparked by loud-mouth Brandon Phillips.
While a lot can be said about Yadi's not so welcome greeting, or Phillips' inappropriate generalization, (and the awesomeness of Yadi's solo home-run that I think, pretty much shut Phillips' up for good), what I was drawn to was LaRussa's reaction after the game.
LaRussa, a man I am convinced will never smile, walked into the press conference with his usual scowl, growing angrier with the press for insisting on discussing the 1st inning fight. Tony's only real comment was "I want to talk baseball. That was not baseball."
We forget sometimes that fights are not always sport. While baseball has been criticized for being the weaker of the American sports, slower and less physical than football, it still presents a stage for physical and aggressive behaviors to outlet themselves.
So I understand LaRussa's frustration, and I understand why the press is so apt to push the issue. Its interesting, but it's not baseball.
But isn't it? What would the Gas-House Gang or John McGraw say about the fight? To them, and many baseball legends, cleats-up, in your face, everyone off the bench, out of the bull-pen, brawls wasn't so frowned upon. Isn't that the nature of Cardinals' history to begin with? Rough and Tumble? Since when does baseball have to be so damn classy?
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