Eye for an eye

I was planning on posting about women's basketball after the shellacking UConn gave Louisville on Tuesday night, ranting about how there is no parody in women's basketball, the problems with Geno Auriemma, the list goes on.  But instead something happened last night that harks back to a problem I've had with sports for a long time.

This happened.

Now, I'm not a big fan of baseball brawls.  They're usually pretty stupid, everybody just stands around, and then the bullpens come running out to stand around, it's very, very stupid.  But the reason this particular brawl is important is because of the sheer violence of it.  On the surface it doesn't look any worse then any other bench clearing brawl, but when you watch the video, the moment the batter (Carlos Quentin) makes contact with the pitcher (Zack Grienke), Grienke's collarbone breaks. 

His damn collarbone breaks.

In this instance, I definitely think it was more of a fluke then anything, but it brings me back to something I thought of a long time ago when fights break out in sports, or when extremely flagrant fouls/penalties result in a serious injury.

The offending player should not be allowed to play until the injured player returns. 

The first time I thought of this was in 2004, after what I consider one of the worst cheap shots in sports history.

After this cheap punch from behind, Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for the rest of the season, and Steve Moore never played again.

Steve Moore had three broken vertebrae in his neck.

Bertuzzi missed a total of 20 games for his infraction, which also was not ruled a penalty on the ice when it happened.  He was ejected from the game, but because of the actions that happened AFTER he hit Moore.  Bertuzzi is still active in the league today.

There are numerous other incidents like this that happen in sports, but not all are as blatantly intentional as these ones here.  Baseball mound charges are not a part of the game.  The purpose of them is to injure the pitcher.  That is the ONLY reason they happen.  What MLB needs to do is what the NBA does when fights occur.

The NBA suspends EVREY.  SINGLE.  PLAYER.  That comes off of the bench in a fight.  No exceptions.  Your buddy could be lying motionless on the floor, if you charge off of the bench, even to assist him, you are ejected and suspended.  This system is a little flawed, as seen in 2007 when Robert Horry hockey checks Steve Nash into the sidelines.

As Steve Nash goes flying, his teammates Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw leap up from the bench and head over to Nash's side.  They did absolutely nothing to escalate the situation, but the iron-shod rule of the NBA called for them to both be suspended for the next game.

Oh, did I mention this was the playoffs?  Game 4?  Western Conference Semi Finals?  Yeah, it swung the entire series.  Robert Horry won that playoff series for the Spurs by, well, by cheating.

Good thing he's Canadian and knows how to take a hit

Crap like this is a BIG problem in sports.  Incidental injuries happen.  Hell, Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theisman's leg in HALF on a perfectly legal hit.  But when players go out of their way to intentionally injure their opponent, they need to be dealt with in the harshest possible manner.  Ricky Williams got kicked out of the NFL for a year for smoking pot.  He didn't ruin anyone else's career.  Bill Romanowski punched Marcus Williams during the preseason and BROKE HIS ORBITAL SOCKET.  Williams was forced to retire.  Romo was suspended from one practice.  He played the entire season.

The major sports leagues need to learn how to police this properly.  Carlos Quentin should be out as long as Grienke is.  He wanted to hurt Grienke, and he did.

The messed up part of this whole thing too isn't just the fact of what happened on the field.  After the game was over, Matt Kemp, a teammate of Grienke's, hunted down Quentin and berated him for quite some time.  Thank GOD he had the good sense to do nothing else.  Where is the line here?  When does this become assault?  It's not in the damn rules to attack other players.  If I had a coworker tackle me and break my collarbone, you can bet your ass I would have him arrested.  Ugh, this whole thing just infuriates me.

Oh, so I guess baseball season has started.  Go Mariners.