Thoughts, In Two Parts

This story popped up tonight.

And it was all over ESPN's baseball tonight which I watched while at the gym (hooray for cardio).

Okay, so Prince Fielder and Manny Para exchanged words during the game which resulted in a shoving match and Fielder looking like he was about 2 milliseconds away from going BALLISTIC. In the end, I didn't really think it was a big deal. And neither did their manager. His response: we're a family eight months a year. There's going to be fights. It's like when your neighbors fight. You don't go over and ask them what they were fighting about. So stop asking what it was about.

Yeah, I totally agree. And my agreement is free of sarcasm. These players spend the majority of their lives together. Practice, workouts, training camp, regular season, etc. All in a very competitive atmosphere. And they're not always going to get along together. Especially when things aren't going well (they're in the middle of a losing streak). Who cares?

My second thought is that it's interesting when grown men fight or argue with one another and even lay hands on the other....and it's supposed to be brushed off. I agree.

But lay hands on your manager or another non-player and kiss your tenure with that team goodbye (see Latrell Spreewell, Shawn Chacon). Interesting. What's the lesson? Respect the chain of command, but fighting with your teammates is okay. Interesting (which is coincidentally a word that has been invading my blog posts).