We can solve the problem of bench-clearing brawls in three easy steps. The Yankess and Tigers just had eight ejections in a game that should have simply petered out because it was not all that compelling. One player got mad and threw at another player. A ball slipped out of someone's hand, and we cleared the benches three times. There is no reason to have a baseball game break out into a fight when we could narrow the whole affair to just baseball.
Easiest rule ever
You're suspended if you get up off the bench. That's the rule in the NBA. You are suspended if you even get up off the bench during a fight.
The players in the fight are going to be suspended, and the players that leave the bench get suspended. The NBA has cut back on Fights so much because of this simple rule. It would be easy to say you should not leave the dugout. That is an easy way to break up many disputes, and it is much easier to speed up the game in this manner.
If you leave the base paths
If you leave the base paths, you should be ejected. That is very simple. We have far too many players who leave the base paths to fight pitchers. The player that leaves the base path is suspended. That is a forgone conclusion. The player will then be exponentially suspended because of fighting. That would see certain players in a brawl be suspended for 20 or 30 games.
A game with three brawls in it could see players suspended for extended periods of time. They need to learn their lesson.
Legislate the unwritten rules
Major League Baseball has to ensure that it has legislated all the Unwritten Rules of the game. Every little thing that players get upset about should have a rule attached to it.
If the players want to police the game in this manner, we need to make it part of the rule book. There are so many players who get upset about flipped bats, staring at home runs, and poor strike zones that we forget about not hurting each other. Players will not have enough time to fight because they will spend all their time following the rules.
Automatically eject players who argue balls and strikes, and force the players to abide by the rules of the officials. Umpires are screamed at far too much even though some of them do unbelievably poor jobs officiating. We still need to stop players from thinking that they are in charge. They play a game that can be very dangerous, and there are four officials on the field who are in control. We need to give control back and institute common sense rules.
