Breaking Down the Brawl

Columns — By on September 16, 2009 9:43 am

Welcome to Fight Night here at The Bronx View!

I’m not going to go into too much detail about the fight.  There’s plenty of videos and stories out there about it that anything I add recapping the incident is redundant.

A few thoughts:

  • Posada is at fault.  I can understand him getting upset about being thrown behind, especially since it didn’t seem like the previously Blue Jay batters were thrown at. (Melancon seemed more questionable than Mitre, certainly).  He should have just let it go at that.  Inciting a brawl when your team is a few weeks away from the playoffs is a good way to get some key players hurt.  Not smart.
  • That said, Carlson instigated Posada to do something.  When a pitcher backs up a throw from right field, they are supposed to be behind the plate on the third base side.  Carlson put himself in no man’s land on the first base side, directly in the path of a scoring Posada.  You have to assume that was intentional, since he obviously looks towards the approaching Posada twice before the two met.  Carlson said something to Posada as he passed, which could have been more apologetic than antagonizing.  We don’t know.  But Posada threw his elbow out and Carlson continued the conversation by barking back at Posada, who had just been tossed out of the game.
  • Posada shouldn’t have thrown his elbow out, but at the same time, he didn’t exactly punch Carlson in the face.  If Posada had sucker-punched Carlson Darryl Strawberry style, there would be even more reason to blame Posada.  The fact is, Carlson setup the confrontation by putting himself between Posada and the dugout.  He was inviting some type of acknowledgment from Posada, whether good or bad.  Again, maybe what he was trying to say to Posada was less antagonistic and more about, “no offense, gotta protect my mates,” but that probably wasn’t the time to do it.  Posada, running full speed through the plate (which admittedly isn’t that fast) had made up his mind what he was going to do well before Carlson attempted to speak.

So, for once I agree with John Kruk on Baseball Tonight: both players were at fault.  Posada takes a little bit more blame for inciting the fisticuffs.

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2 Comments

  1. Rob A from BBD says:
    September 16, 2009 at 12:54 pm

    I would give Posada more of the blame just because he knows better and the Yankees are just weeks away from the playoffs. Carlson really has nothing to lose so who cares what his reactions are. Plus, the throw at posada was in retaliation and he should have just let it end there.

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  2. Scott Ham says:
    September 16, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    Posada definitely should have let it go. He should have stepped out after the pitch behind his back, shut his mouth, and gotten back in the box.

    At the same time, Carlson was retaliating for previous batters being hit. If he was pissed, how does he expect Posada to react? He can’t be surprised that Posada was upset, never mind putting himself in Posada’s path for a confrontation like he did.

    Posada is the reason it escalated and he deserves that blame, but Carlson’s judgment after Posada got on base was equally bad.

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