Atlanta Braves At Fault For Creating Brawl With Milwaukee Brewers

Atlanta Braves To Blame For Brawl With Milwaukee Brewers

September 26, 2013 12:41 pm EDT by Bryan Zarpentine

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

With regards to the brawl Wednesday night between the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers following the home run by Carlos Gomez, the Braves are at fault. The Braves should have ignored Gomez and let it go. Instead, they went after Gomez, escalated the situation and caused the benches to clear in one of the ugliest incidents that has occurred during the 2013 MLB season.

Gomez should not have admired his home run and showed up the Braves the way he did, but the Braves should not have instigated him. Paul Maholm and Freddie Freeman should not have shouted at him while he was running the bases; they should have known that Gomez would react negatively. Most importantly, Brian McCann should not have blocked home plate, preventing Gomez from scoring.

McCann blocking the plate so that Gomez couldn’t complete his home run trot is just as childish and immature as Gomez admiring his home run, if not more so. It’s one thing to yell at a player, but it’s another thing to interfere with him running the bases. What McCann did is the equivalent to if Freeman had stuck his leg out to trip Gomez as he rounded first base. It was a radical reaction and above all else, an overreaction.

There are other ways the Braves could have dealt with the situation, but confronting him right then and there on the basepaths was not the solution. It was an immature reaction to Gomez’s immaturity, and it created an unnecessary brawl that led to ejections and could lead to suspensions.

Moreover, the Braves need to be smarter. They need to realize that they are less than a week away from playing in the playoffs, and the last thing they need is a distraction like this or for one of their key players to get suspended. No one is saying the Braves need to like what Gomez did, but they needed to look the other way and let it go.

Gomez is not without blame too, but the Braves turned what could have been nothing into a major incident. Atlanta should have more important things to worry about right now than a player’s reaction to a meaningless home run in a meaningless game, and because they chose not to look the other way, they’re to blame for Wednesday night’s brawl.

Bryan Zarpentine is a New York Mets writer at www.RantSports.com. Like him on Facebook, follow him on twitter @BZarp and add him on Google.

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David Miller Rant

I hate to disagree but there was nothing at all childish about what Brian McCann did. He refused to let that wild-eyed out of control Gomez across the plate because someone needed to stop him. Gomez may have wanted a fight but he didn’t want any of Big McCann at that moment. Great piece though.
- Bryan Zarpentine
  
  Thanks David. But I think McCann could have done what he did after Gomez crossed the plate. It just struck me as something a bratty kid would do when things didn’t go his way. I appreciate you being able to disagree with me without personally insulting me.
  - David Miller Rant
    
    He probably could have waited until Gomez crossed the plate but I hate to think of what Gomez would have done then…. maybe turned a flip or something? LoL… I think McCann probably did get caught up in the emotion a bit as well but still I didn’t see it as childish. Yeah there is no reason to insult someone just to disagree. I know all about that as well.
    - Allen Thompson
      
      Well personally I think the umpire should of gotten involved because what McCann did was unsportsman conduct but you can say the same thing about Gomez. Face it another situation going bad and mean real bad because the umpires didn’t do anything.
Allen Thompson

For anyone to say that Wednesday wasn’t a meaningful game is a 100% wrong. Atlanta is trying to win as much as they can so they can have the best record in the National League. St. Louis is trying to do the same thing as well and they need just one more win to clinch the Central Division. At this time of the season for any team that is chasing a division title or even home field advantage in the playoffs every win counts for something. St. Louis and Atlanta are after as much wins as they can get right now. So in closing to say that these games are meaningless you might want get the facts of what winning these games will do for any team at this time of the year that is trying to get into the playoffs or getting home field advantage.