My take on the Padres-Dodgers #Basebrawl

A sports take, because knee-jerk reactions from a national media that is Los Angeles/Dodgers-centric get tiresome. My response to Sports on Earth columnist Gwen Knapp's "No Reason" post...

Gwen Knapp joins a crowded left field of sports media colleagues on the Dodgers' bandwagon who, in response to last night's brawl, are all running with the same lame "tale-of-the-tape" meme. To be fair, Carlos Quentin is a bull and Zack Greinke isn't. But that doesn't tell the whole story, especially when one factors in the damage that a well-located fastball can do.

Oh, and Q was not crowding the plate:

h/t to CJ Nitkowski for image

Unfortunately, Gwenn also fails to mention that the official Twitter feed for the Dodgers went trolling afterwards. Or what happened after the game, when the REAL adolescent, Matt Kemp, went looking for a fight...

Clayton Richard in #BeastMode

Quoting the original caption: Los Angeles Dodgers' Matt Kemp, left, is stopped by San Diego Padres' Clayton Richard when Kemp confronted the Padres' Carlos Quentin in the tunnel walk-way exiting Petco Park following the baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in which a brawl occurred when Quentin was hit by a pitch from the Dodgers' Zack Greinke in San Diego, Thursday, April 11, 2013. Greinke suffered a broken left collarbone in the brawl.(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

...which resulted in a San Diego police officer having to break up the confrontation brought on by Kemp:

More of Clayton Richard in #BeastMode

Quoting the original caption: A San Diego police officer arrives to break up a confrontation involving Los Angeles Dodgers' Matt Kemp, left, and San Diego Padres' Clayton Richard after Richard stopped Kemp when he confronted the Padres' Carlos Quentin in the tunnel walk-way exiting Petco Park following the baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in which a brawl occurred when Quentin was hit by a pitch from the Dodgers' Zack Greinke in San Diego, Thursday, April 11, 2013. Greinke suffered a broken left collarbone in the brawl. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

I'm a lifelong baseball fan -- I love the game. I recall a time when a home plate umpire rang up Matt Kemp on a called third strike that he didn't like. Kemp was in a rut (rare for him) and he WENT OFF. Now I've heard cursing before but Kemp was dropping F-bombs and was loud and vulgar all the way to the dugout... and he didn't stop there. He went on and on. It was cringe-worthy. The hundreds of fans within earshot would agree. I can't say that those who heard Kemp's tirade lost respect for him as a "professional" but I know that I did that day.

Back to point, how the Dodgers (didn't) handle themselves last night detracts from what should be a national celebration this Monday -- Jackie Robinson Day. It's a bad time for bad PR, especially with the anniversary of the brutal beating that the still-recovering Bryan Stow suffered in the Dodger's parking lot two years ago, and the Dodgers' former owner Frank McCourt still not having picked up the tab for Stow's mounting medical costs. But I guess that's a different topic that "sports writers" are afraid to touch.

To wrap this up, I'd argue that, besides Kemp, another person who acted without reason was Zack Greinke himself, who suffers from Social Anxiety Disorder. And taking on a bull by the horns didn't prove to be too smart, did it?

Related: What a #Basebrawl can do for a team...