Before we get into the fight itself, lets go back in time a little bit shall we. 2014 National League Divisional Round. Giants facing the Nationals. Sure the Giants won the series in four games. During that series, Bryce Harper hit three home runs in the course of the series, two of which he hit of reliever Hunter Strickland. The two haven't faced off against each other since that series, almost three years ago.
Some baseball analyst believe that series lead to this:
There are a couple of things worth noting about the whole entire fight. Its been three years since that playoff series, its been long enough between the home run and now. Time for Hunter Strickland to grow up and move on with his life. The fact that he even hit him shows a lack of maturity on the part of Strickland. I mean come on this is just outrageous. If he really wanted to get back at Harper for the home runs in the series, he should have plunked him in game four and been done with it. There's no way possible you could convince me or anybody else watching the game, or even just that play, and tell me that this wasn't intentional. You're out of your mind.
Then there's Bryce Harper. Throwing his helmet isn't exactly the smartest thing to do. Those things hurt a lot when you get hit with them. They aren't as hard as they once were, but still. Throwing something the size of a helmet is dangerous. What happens if you throw it at somebody and it hits him with the brim of the helmet? That could do a lot of damage if it hits in the right place. Luckily for all parties involved in this case, Harper wasn't able to hit his target, as the helmet went about twenty feet in the opposite direction from Strickland. Its a little surprising, and very lucky in this regards, that he wasn't able to hit his target, because he has a pretty good throwing arm. Then again, throwing a baseball and throwing a batting helmet are two totally different things.
One final thing to notice about the fight itself. And that's Buster Posey, the Giants catcher. It takes him a good five or so seconds to get out from behind the plate and head for the mound. In most fights, or at least shouting matches, that you seen when a batter gets either hit or thrown at. The catcher will almost always come out from behind the plate and step in front of the hitter and prevent him from going to the mound. Or if he can't get there fast enough he's usually one of the first guys out by the mound trying to at least protect his pitcher. Posey didn't do that right away. He didn't move from behind the plate and start running towards the mound until the benches actually cleared. I can understand, based on his past injury issues, that Posey doesn't want to get hurt. San Francisco already has one star that's out hurt in Madison Baumgardner. But Posey should have been on the move a lot faster then he did and it made him look a little weak.
Fights in baseball do happen, they don't happen as often as they once did, but they still do happen. The reason behind this fight was really stupid. The home runs that Harper hit were three years ago and it really shouldn't have mattered because the Giants not only won that series, but they also went on to win the World Series that year too. So the fact that Strickland even threw at Harper was completely dumb. Most people who watch baseball regularly can tell, I would hope at least, if a pitch was thrown at somebody at purpose or just got away from him. This one was thrown with intent and made no sense what so ever. Suspensions should be handed out for this situation.
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