While it would require only one glove dropping — as opposed to four hockey gloves — Ryan Dempster thinks hockey-style fights might have a place in baseball.
Dempster may have been kidding — in typical Dempster fashion — but he proposed a rather wild idea on Friday when asked about baseball brawls in the wake of Thursday’s rumble between the Dodgers and Padres.
“I say you just let the pitcher and hitter go at it,” Dempster said. “That’d be more fun. Kind of hockey style.The umpires break it up and everyone else has to stay at their position. You have to stay in your dugouts. Maybe that would solve a lot of problems.”
Wouldn’t that be something? Sure, it’ll never happen, but it’s fun to imagine how such situations would play out, especially since most baseball fights end up being nothing more than a big pile of bodies.
Of course, hockey-style fights would require commissioner Bud Selig to consider new punishments. Eight-game suspensions — like the one handed to Carlos Quentin following Thursday’s brawl — would probably steer most players away from engaging in a 1-on-1 showdown. Then again, it hasn’t stopped all-out brawls thus far, so perhaps no level of punishment can curb the occasional baseball melee.
Dempster’s teammate, Andrew Bailey, wasn’t exactly as supportive of a new fighting system, but he recognizes baseball brawls for what they are.
“It’s part of the game,” Bailey said. “If a guy wants to go out there he’s got to deal with the consequences.”
Those consequences probably won’t be two minutes in the box any time soon.
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