Diving right in with Chris‘ question:

Did you ever regret anything you did during a “bench clearing brawl” as its called (but not accurately worded in most cases). It’s easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment, but do you believe that in those instances in your career you were truly backing up your teammates?

Interesting question for this blog, Chris. As you alluded to, a “bench clearing brawl” is usually nothing but a bunch of dudes who don’t really want to fight acting like they do. Quite often, punches are not even thrown. Think about it, how often do you see a sea of bodies, jawing and pushing, but no real action being taken? That’s the clearest possible indication that the men in both uniforms want to appear angry and tough, but really would like to get back to their respective dugouts and discuss what just happened with no blood on their shirts.

Every so often, the desire for violence becomes genuine and you get a real fight on the diamond. That inherent need to scrap may be rooted in evolution. From the Huffington Post:

Charles Darwin noted “the greater size, strength, courage, and pugnacity of the males in most species.” He attributed this to males “having been successful in conquering other males, and thus having left a larger number of offspring to inherit their superiority.”

In other words, if you are a man living on this planet today, it’s only because, for millions of generations, your genetic forebears successfully beat the crap out of their rivals. You are the descendant of champions.

Don’t get mad at me, it’s Darwin’s take.

I’ve taken part in a few of the ugly ones between the lines. For the most part, they’re akin to the neighborhood fracas (I replied to this question just so I could use this word) you may have been in as a teenager or that bar brawl you remember when there were bodies were flying everywhere. They’re chaos, and to that end, I don’t regret my actions at all. In fact, I do feel like I backed up my teammates, and I do feel like they backed me up. Finally, in many ways we were defending ourselves and each other. There was never a sucker punch that I can remember and engagement was mutual for guys wearing grey and white.

The floor is open to your questions or comments. No rules.

Strong Mind,

Kap