By now, most people know the penalties that Dodgers Manager, Don Mattingly, thinks should be handed down. He believes that the aggressor in the April 11th brawl, Padres' Outfielder Carlos Quentin, should be suspended until his pitcher, Zack Greinke, can come back from the injury he sustained at Quentin’s hand, or body in this case. The league had to make its own decision on the situation though, and they did just that this weekend when they suspended the Dodgers' Jerry Hairston Jr. for one game and Quentin for eight games. It is not quite the steep penalty Mattingly was hoping for, but rest assured, eight games is surely steep.
In a similar situation in 2008, then Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp charged then Tampa Bay Rays’ James Shields after Shields plunked him. Crisp was later suspended seven games for his role in the fight, just one game less than Quentin, and Crisp actually decked Shields. Reds Pitcher, Johnny Cueto, also made contact with another player during a brawl and was handed a seven game suspension. In the 2010 brawl between the Reds and the Cardinals Cueto repeatedly kicked Cardinals back-up catcher Jason LaRue. In both of these cases, the aggressors viciously assaulted their counterparts in the fight. In Quinten’s case, he just collided with Grienke, and he is getting suspended a game longer because Grienke happened to get hurt.
The real question is; how should MLB act against the other people involved? Should Greinke get a pass because he injured himself by lowering his shoulder? Should Dodgers superstar Matt Kemp get off free even though it was his screaming and yelling that prolonged the fight? Did someone on the Padres continue chirping at the Dodgers bench to draw Hairston out for the second fight? What should happen about the post-game nose to nose between Quentin and Kemp?
One thing to do would have been to suspend Hairston, Kemp, and anyone else who may have been a major player in the fight for the three game series that started last night. Nip the chance of a retaliation right away by not having anyone worth retaliating against in the initial series. That also would have answered what to do with Kemp, because the way he was screaming and yelling at the officials and Padres Manager, Bud Black, during the fight should not be ignored by MLB, let alone what he did after the game; getting in Quentin’s face. That did not happen though, because as much as MLB does not want another fight like the one last week, the chance of it happening again will increase ratings.
The last major issue is what do you do with Greinke? MLB has yet to say anything about Greinke as he relates to this brawl, and they probably won’t. They’ll excuse him for his part in the brawl because he is going to miss six weeks anyway, but if you look at the tape, he is just as responsible as Quentin. It’s pretty clear Greinke did not hit Quentin on purpose, but whatever it is he said while Quentin was starring him down caused him to charge. So although he probably did not hit Quentin on purpose, he instigated the fight. He threw his glove down and got ready for the brawl. In hockey, when a fight starts like that, both parties serve the penalty. In the case of MLB, one half will escape un-penalized.