Does Fighting Belong in Sports?

Last week, Richie Sexson of the Seattle Mariners was suspended for taking the lead on a fight that cleared the benches of both teams. He was originally suspended for six games, but that has been reduced to five games following his appeal. Although he had charged the mound, tackled the pitcher for throwing the ball too close to him and then gotten all his buddies involved, his apology seemed to focus on the fact that he threw his helmet, which he admitted wasn’t “the right thing to do.”

The Mariners haven’t been off to a great start–they are ranked 4th in their league and, up until last night, were on a losing streak. Of course, that means that they won their last game on Sunday against the White Sox, which was the series directly following the Thursday night show-down against the Texas Rangers. Is it any wonder that, right before Sunday’s bombastic offensive show by the Mariners, their manager, John McLaren, gave some face time to the press waxing pop-psychology in what Bud Withers of the Seattle Times dubbed, ” a prolonged examination of the psyche of a team trying desperately to find itself.” I say this, because there’s something sort of spiraling about a team on a losing streak, bursting into a late-game riot and then being apologized for by its manager.

Although I don’t have a ton of experience with sports, I do have quite a bit with men. And from my experience, I can guess that, when they started the game on Sunday, their pride was fed up with being on a team that was mimicking a plane crash. This is the sort of scene that you often find in inspiring sports films. “We Are Marshall” is a good example. A team comes in on a low note, then faces a catastrophe, then pulls it out at the end. It’s almost a necessary pattern. It’s true what they say about rock bottom, though–the only way to go is up.

In that way, I think the Mariners needed Richie Sexson to blow his top and invite the rest of them to join in. Losing is frustrating. Losing repeatedly is even worse and is almost self-perpetuating. May as well take yourself down to the very bottom as quickly as possible so you don’t have the option to dig yourself further. But, yes, throwing the helmet was a little much.

Angela Bull

(photo credit: marksobba)

April 10th, 2009 by Sports Fan | Posted in Sports Scandals | (1)