If the same event happens in the NFL, flags start flying, and if it's done in the NBA, David Stern gets giddy sending out fines and suspensions. Hockey, like baseball, encourages and celebrates pugilistic encounters, but fights take place every night in the NHL, and they rarely become national news.
Bench-clearing incidents in baseball are truly unique. They can't really be called fights, because nobody's ever willing to throw any punches, and it's usually more just a bunch of guys blowing hot air at each other than anything else. Having pitchers from the bullpen jog in from the outfield, only to eventually turn around and jog back adds yet another layer of futility to the "fight."
Yet for all their quirks and oddities, bench-clearing brawls are often credited for providing a spark to otherwise listless teams, for resulting in long winning streaks and for uniting a team. But should they?
The old saying in baseball is that momentum is only as good as your next day's starting pitcher, and that's regardless of whether you spent the previous day fighting your biggest rival. Maybe you won a big fight on Thursday, but you still might get blown out on Friday — and neither of those events will necessarily have an impact on your game on Saturday.
Still, it can be fun to think of the skirmishes as the turning point of a season. It may even be accurate in the case of the 2004 Red Sox.
On July 24, 2004, the Red Sox were 52-44 on the season and were losing 2-0 to the Yankees, who held a dominant 9 1/2-game lead in the AL East. Then, Jason Varitek introduced Alex Rodriguez to his mitt and the Red Sox completed a near-miraculous comeback against Mariano Rivera. From that point on, the Red Sox went 45-20, fought back from a 3-0 series deficit to the Yankees and won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Even six years later, many people point to that brawl as the spark that ignited the championship run.
Similarly, Tuesday's spat between the Cardinals and Reds will be seen as a potential boost to both teams as they battle for first place over the next two months.
There's no doubt that the teams played the rest of the game with newfound intensity, especially seen in Yadier Molina's rare home-run pose in the batter's box — but will it mean much next week? What about next month?
In a sport dictated by statistics and averages, saying a brawl helps a team may seem silly — but is it?
Share your thoughts below.
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