A couple of weeks ago, Carlos Gomez, the Milwaukee Brewers’ star outfielder, got in a brawl. Later in the week, Mike and Mike of the ESPN Radio talk show were discussing the matter and they said something that struck me. “Brawls like this give sports personality.”
Now, they did not say that sports should be about fighting or that fighting was good. The conversation was pretty reasonable and entertaining. However, I do think that brawls should not be encouraged whatsoever and I think that they left the door open. Considering they are punishable offenses, it is rational to think it is in the game’s best interest not to promote such behavior.
People do get excited about brawls, and there isn’t much hope in changing that directly. There are still ways to make the game lively and allow fans opportunities for interaction. My solution to spice up the game: make the teams #BostonStrong.
With that in mind, I am not even a Red Sox fan. As a matter of fact, I have followed the Cardinals since 2001 and the Blue Jays since 2004 so I have never really liked the Red Sox. Once I learned of the tragedy in Boston though, I immediately felt pain for the families who had to suffer because of the events.
When the Red Sox beat the Cardinals for the 2013 World Series, I was not even upset. The Boston community deserved it; all of America needed to witness a complete healing. This is what baseball should be all about — the community.
Major League Baseball and organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America have done a pretty good job of keeping the loyal baseball fans involved. The question now is how can we garner entire communities to consistently interact with the romantic game? Unfortunately, “Boston Strong” emerged from a tragedy and I surely do not want more tragedies, but it did bring people together. Actually, it brought the entire MLB together and gave the spotlight to all the people involved with the Boston Marathon.
To take action like this, we need to take individual initiative. Each of us need to be close to our loved ones, each of us need to reach out to people in need, each of us need to realize that (in the moderated words of David Ortiz), “This is our (game)!” We may not all love the Red Sox or the Cardinals, but let us learn to love the game and each other the way we are meant to.
