By Ellen Chlumecky

April 28, 2015

When you think about fighting in sports, what’s the first sport you think of when you think fights? One would probably think boxing first and foremost. Maybe one might think of hockey, football, lacrosse, or maybe even basketball. Baseball is probably low on the list of sports that people might think of as violent. One would most likely not think of baseball as a sport that involves brawling of any kind. However, this week baseball defied all stereotypes this week with a huge brawl that grabbed an enormous amount of media attention.

On, Thursday, April 23^rd, the Kansas City Royals and the Chicago White Sox had a brawl at U.S. Cellular Field. Six players were suspended in the process and a seventh player is now being fined for their roles. The Royals’ pitcher Yordano Ventura received a seven game suspension. Another Royals’ pitcher Edinson Volquez received a five game suspension. Royals’ outfielder Lorenzo Cain received a two game suspension. Lastly from the Royals, pitcher Kelvin Herrera also received a two game suspension. White Sox pitchers Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija received five game suspensions. White Sox catcher Tyler Flowers was not suspended but was fined with an undisclosed amount. In addition to their suspensions, they were also fined as well.

Tensions had been high for quite some time, since the opening series of the season to be exact. The fight took place in the seventh inning Thursday. It started near the first-base foul line then started to range out toward second base and resuming again near the first-base bag. It ended with the ejection of five players which included both of the starting pitchers: Ventura and Sale.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12752895

You can view the whole brawl in the video above. It was a mess of arms, hands, and baseball hats. In addition to those seven players, players from both the dugouts and bullpens ran onto the field. Other players threw punches in the fight that lasted several minutes.

The Royals are starting to earn a fighting reputation after several incidents. The White Sox are just one of two teams they got into a fight with; the other one was with the Oakland A’s. Also, Yordano Ventura got into a heated argument with the Angels’ Mike Trout during a series. Yet Yost insisted that his club has rarely been the instigator in any of these situations. However, he hopes that it’s all behind them and they can move forward.

The MLB did the right thing. A massive amount of younger children look up to these baseball players. The MLB doesn’t want to condone this brawling among its fans. The MLB believes this punishment is fair and I agree fully. While some of the players are trying to appeal, I believe the MLB will do what they think is the right option.