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haroldkasselman

haroldkasselman

Is Violence a necessary ingredient of sports?

Is violence a necessary part of sports?    

      The Dodgers found themselves in yet another baseball scrum last night; this time it was the divisional leading Arizona Diamondbacks. And yes Zach Greinke was front and center once again
It started when the Dodgers' star rookie, Yasiel Puig, was hit in the face by a pitch in the sixth, which led to the Dodgers and pitcher Zack Greinke to retaliate in the seventh by hitting Miguel Montero. But when Ian Kennedy sent one toward Greinke's head in the seventh, all hell broke lose with a benches-clearing brawl, and Puig was right in the middle of it.   The problem, with the attitude that this is just boys playing out the tradition of the unwritten rules of baseball, is that someone will be seriously hurt or a career will be ended.   The exception to the unwritten code of retaliation is that "purpose pitches" are not to be thrown at the neck or above. In this game Puig was hit in the face and Greinke was hit in the head.   Someone needs to grow up and realize that a baseball can be a deadly weapon even if it is not intentionally thrown at the head with a purpose to hit the head. Just trying to intimidate can lead to a recklessly caused injury.    Two lesser things came out of last night's game. One the Dodgers won. Secondly with Mattingly going all out for his players yesterday by mixing it up with Alan Trammel, he has probably saved his job for the rest of the year.   If you would like to read a novel that depicts how far escalation can go in an MLB game, read A PITCH FOR JUSTICE. The criminal justice system gets involved to make a pitcher accountable for a tragedy on the field. http://www.amazon.com/A-Pitch-for-Jus...
Also read the below well argued dilemma for sports fans on whether violence is just an acceptable part of the game. http://www.cortezjournal.com/article/...