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Courtesy of Bill Ladson at MLB.com, here were Nyjer Morgan‘s comments this afternoon upon learning about his eight-game suspension for “three separate incidents” in the past week, including clipping St. Louis Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson instead of touching home plate, exchanging expletives with fans in Miami after bowling over Florida Marlins catcher Brett Hayes—ending his season with a separated shoulder—on Tuesday night, and the resultant brawl Wednesday night: 
 

“Man, they threw the book at me.  What did I do? I feel I haven’t done anything. They are blowing this way out of proportion because I’m a hard-nosed player—because I knocked over a catcher. They throw the ball at me. Come on, what am I supposed to do? I have to take this and try to keep playing.

I feel I haven’t done anything wrong expect for playing the game hard and play the game like it’s supposed to be played. Wow. I don’t know what else to say. It’s just a fact that people are blowing this way out of proportion. I don’t think you should be suspended for hitting a catcher…I don’t understand what I did wrong to get an eight-game suspension. They make it seem like I’m Mike Tyson.”

Morgan has appealed this current suspension, since he is in Friday night’s lineup (hitting leadoff, no less), and he has appealed the pending seven-game suspension for throwing a ball into the stands in Philadelphia, injuring a patron. His original hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, but has been pushed to next Friday, presumably so they can handle both cases.

The league can’t appreciate Morgan making these further statements in the press, and it certainly won’t help him in the hearing.

Morgan should consider himself fortunate that he “only” got eight games. 

Marlins pitcher Alex Sanabia got five for his part, and the video shows him throwing a couple punches on the bottom of the pile and then getting tossed around like a rag doll by Adam Dunn.  If Morgan got just three more games than Sanabia, with the Cardinals incident and the yelling at fans incident lumped in, Morgan is lucky he didn’t get two weeks.

It amazes me that Morgan appears so clueless to not realize what he’s done, unless this is still part of this “underdog tough guy” act. I also wonder why his agent hasn’t taken it upon himself to shut his client up.

But I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me.

Find out why it shouldn’t surprise anyone at Nats News Network.

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I live in South Florida, and right now I am not in baseball mode. My attention has shifted to other teams in the area.

However, something happened recently that brought my attention back to Major League Baseball:

The bench-clearing brawl between the Marlins and the Nationals.

Down here in South Florida, baseball is normally filler until football season starts, but the Marlins in recent years have managed to keep things interesting by contending for the playoffs almost every season. This year, however, has been a different story.

With a lackluster bullpen, a superstar that does not seem to show much interest, injuries, and a front office that continually lies to its fanbase, it’s been a rough year to be a Marlins fan.

Most fans, if not all, have resigned themselves to the fact that the postseason is a mere pipe dream, even though mathematically the Marlins do stand a chance. Interest in the team is down, and fan morale is even lower after recent reports indicated that the front office has been a little less than truthful.

However, last Wednesday proved that with a few punches and some breaking of unwritten rules, baseball can come off that back burner, at least for a little while.

YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, ESPN, and local and national news were all abuzz about the Marlins and Nationals! These two teams have no business leading headlines, yet there they were front and center for all the world to see.

All people wanted to talk about the next few days was if they saw “the fight” and if they saw Gaby Sanchez deck Nyjer Morgan. Jokes were made that Sanchez should play linebacker for the Dolphins. Morgan became public enemy No. 1 down here for a few days, and EVERYONE was talking about Major League Baseball.

Major League Baseball is no longer the national pastime, so it’s time drastic changes are made before it becomes completely irrelevant.

So where do you start? I say where the Marlins and Nationals left off.

Max Kellerman once said that the No. 1 sport in the world is boxing, because if you put one guy shooting hoops in one corner, another guy throwing footballs in another, and two guys fighting in the third, the biggest crowd will form near the guys fighting—not to mention the rapid rise in popularity by the UFC.

Why can’t this work for baseball? Stop warning benches when guys throw at each other, and stop suspending guys when they rush the mound; let them duke it out, and let the players police themselves when it comes to these unwritten rules of baseball. If the Marlins and Nationals can captivate the sports world for a few days, why can’t the rest of the league do the same thing?

(Follow me on Twitter.com/DavidAlen)

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I was at the Mets game on Monday and sat for the first time in the left field reserved seats.  It was the bottom of the eighth and the Mets were down 3-1;  there had to be only about 4,000 people left in the entire stadium at this point because of the unbearable cold. 

As the Nationals were warming up in the field, me and about 20 other people began heckling centerfielder Nyjer Morgan.  First off I want to clear up for everyone who has a negative connotation of “heckling”, that most of the time  it is harmless.  Some “You Suck Morgan” and a few A-hole chants, but that’s it.  In my years of heckling opposing players, 99 percent of them pay no attention to the fans in the crowd, but this night was special.

As the pitcher was finishing up his warm-ups people began to scream at Nyjer Morgan to throw the ball in the stands.  He responded by hiding the ball and pretending to throw an imaginary one into the crowd.  Bad choice Nyjer.  He was then greeted with the customary and aforementioned “You Suck Morgan” screams.  Then, if it wasn’t enough that it was 35 below, Nats Manager Jim Wriggleman decided that he would try and see how many pitching changes he could make in one half inning. 

As bad as this seemed at the moment it allowed us fans and Nyjer to continue to bond.   A fan screamed out during one of the pitching changes, “Hey Morgan, show us your slap shot.”  He proceeded to pretend to skate and shoot slap shots in the vast Citi Field outfield.   

More amusing then that was him blowing kisses at the 20 of us still in the left field bleachers.  Thing was, we were all dudes.  The jeering began to get worse, but thankfully for him the inning had ended.

I was tempted to leave after the Mets were unable to score in the eighth but why should Nyjer Morgan get off that easy. 

So I braved the cold and stayed for the ninth. We continued to scream at him as he warmed up, “Throw us the ball Morgan”.  Well in response to our pleas, Morgan thought it would be funny to show us the ball in his glove and then grab the family jewels.  People who thought that heckling was inappropriate before, a Major League centerfielder just grabbed his avocados, enough said. 

The last straw was when Morgan finally threw the ball into the stands, but over everyone’s head into the 20 empty rows behind.    He continued to tip his cap towards us as the jeering got worse, but in the end Nyjer got the final word as the Nats held of the Mets 3-2.  As much as I dislike most opposing players, after this encounter I will always have a special space in my heart for Nyjer Morgan.

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Everyone likes a good ole-fashioned baseball brawl.

Fighting in baseball dates back to the ’30s, when Bill Dickey broke Carl Reynolds’ jaw after Reynolds collided with Dickey at home plate.

Since then we have seen some classic brawls, such as the one between Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose in 1973. The Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres beat the snot out of each other in 1984, and Eric Davis and Ray Knight duked it out at third base in 1986.

On Wednesday night we had another version of basebrawl. The fight started when Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad threw behind Washington Nationals OF Nyjer Morgan. Morgan charged the mound, and the rest was history.

Here is a breakdown of what led to the fight and the fight itself.

Why did Volstad throw at Morgan?

The Marlins were upset that the night before Morgan destroyed catcher Brett Hayes on a play at the plate. Morgan barreled into home plate, which resulted in Hayes separating his shoulder.

This was the second time that Morgan was involved in a controversial play at home plate. He was involved in a similar play versus the St. Louis Cardinals last week with Cardinals catcher Bryan Anderson.

Was Morgan justified in charging the mound?

Yes. I thought Morgan had every right to charge the mound. Volstad made his point in the fourth inning when he pegged Morgan in the back. At that point, everything was over.

I have to think that when Volstad threw behind Morgan, he knew there was going to be a fight, and I think that is what Volstad wanted.

Where does this fight rank?

The beginning was solid, but it didn’t have much staying power. The 6’0″ (that’s being generous) Morgan charged the 6’8″ Volstad and tried to throw a left punch but clearly didn’t have the reach.

As Morgan tried to latch on to Volstad, out of nowhere 1B Gaby Sanchez hit Morgan with what I thought was the “Flying Jalapeno,” which was Tito Santana’s (or what Bobby Heenan used to call it) finishing move. Upon further review, it appeared that Sanchez hit Morgan with a running lariat that would have made Stan “The Lariat” Hansen very proud.

Once the three players went to the ground, there was a big pile-up in the center of the diamond, and not much happened after that. Overall, I would give the brawl a six out of 10.

The one thing that did annoy me about this incident was how Morgan tried to play to the crowd and almost try to egg them on as he was leaving the field. When did Morgan turn into a punk?

When he was on Pittsburgh, we didn’t hear anything about him having a bad attitude or doing anything that would embarrass the organization. If he did indeed do something, I must have missed it.

Now Morgan is starting fights with fans, catchers, and other players. It’s really bizarre to me.

Major League Baseball will decide on Morgan’s fate on Friday. A five- to 10-game suspension on top of the seven-game suspension he is already appealing is likely.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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When speedy Washington Nationals outfielder Nyjer Morgan charged the mound at Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad on Wednesday night, he did it to defend himself.

Nyjer had been plunked on the back earlier in the game, most likely on purpose for separating catcher Brett Hayes’ left shoulder, which tells you the Marlins weren’t too happy with Morgan. 

Morgan had made a dirty play in the series before against the St. Louis Cardinals, bumping into their catcher Bryan Anderson when there was no play at the plate.

It looks like the Florida Marlins had gotten their payback: They plunk the guy; you are leading by 11 runs; it’s over.

But Morgan, too, wanted his part of the revenge, as he stole second and third base—not to mention he slid in aggressively.

The Fish didn’t like that, as later in the game, Volstad threw behind Nyjer Morgan. That was pushing too hard. What are you going to do, just take another base?

Morgan sprinted towards Volstad and missed a punch, while Gaby Sanchez from the Marlins quickly clotheslined him to the ground. 

The benches cleared.

Now at this point, it seems to boil down to this: The Marlins made a mistake trying to hit Morgan two times. It should have just ended when he was hit the first time. Morgan had to crash into Hayes at the plate the night before; it was in extra innings. You aren’t going to slide and get an out at that point, are you?

Morgan understood the first time he was hit since he had made the dirty play in St. Louis, but it wasn’t dirty in Florida. He still kept his temper until he couldn’t anymore.

So, if the story were to end there, with players leaving after the brawl, there were positive notes for baseball in there. 

It showed that our national pastime matters to many of us. It showed that people will fight back in Major League Baseball and that it is isn’t a sport that should be ignored. It showed that there could be some entertainment while at it.

But sadly, the story doesn’t end there. As Morgan was heading to the showers after the brawl, with his jersey torn (which is probably coming out of his paycheck), he screamed at the fans booing him. You can’t exactly know what he had said, but screaming at fans and raising his hands as if saying, “what are you gonna do about it” is a big no-no.

He had made baseball an embarrassment because of that act, and that can’t possibly be close to being okay to MLB commissioner Bud Selig and us, the fans.

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The Florida Marlins and the Washington Nationals engaged in a pretty ugly melee on Wednesday night, and the more I read about the events as they transpired the more I am beginning to think that something isn’t right.

For those of you who missed it—and there can’t be that many of you left—the whole thing actually started in the top of the tenth inning the previous night. With the Nationals’ incredibly speedy Nyjer Morgan on second base and one out in a scoreless ballgame, Adam Kennedy hit a bouncer to second base that looked like it might be an inning ending double play.

However, after the flip to second for one, shortstop Hanley Ramirez held onto the ball. He was unable to convert the double play but noticed Morgan racing for home. He threw home to catcher Brett Hayes, who was standing on the plate and caught the ball ahead of Morgan. An instant later, Morgan collided with Hayes at full speed but failed to score.

Morgan was out, the inning was over, and Hayes had a dislocated shoulder.

The Florida Marlins apparently expressed outrage over the collision and their injured catcher. This is the first thing that doesn’t sit right with me.

Collisions at the plate occur all the time in Major League Baseball, and maybe I’ve missed it, but you almost never hear criticism of the colliding players. Pete Rose famously ruined Ray Fosse’s career by colliding with him in an All Star game once; that moment is offered as an anecdote about how Rose was always hustling.

Conversely, the Phillies’ Jayson Werth was recently chastised for not coming in hard at the catcher when the throw from right field on a tag up beat him to home plate by a mile.

I thought collisions at the plate were something we encouraged and admired. I could be wrong, but let’s move on.

So on Wednesday, obviously feeling the need to retaliate against Morgan for his hard play, the Marlins intentionally threw at him in the fourth inning. Sure enough, Morgan got plunked and went to first base.

Now, I have to stop again here to note that the score at the time of this plunking was 14-3 by way of a five run first, a five run second, and a four run third. Somehow, when Morgan led off the game in the first inning there was no retaliation, but once the Marlins were killing the Nats, now they felt was the time to plunk the guy.

Okay.

So now Morgan is standing on first base with one out in the top of the fourth inning in a 14-3 game against a team that just intentionally threw at him. This is where he apparently broke one of the most unwritten rules in all of baseball: a player on a team that is getting shellacked isn’t allowed to steal bases.

Morgan, one of the fastest players in baseball, took off for second base and beat the throw easily. Then, he took off for third and again beat the throw easily.

So let’s stop here. Evidently, the Florida Marlins took exception to Morgan stealing bases in this situation. Wes Helms is on the record as having said that he just can’t stand when a guy doesn’t play the game the right way, and indicated that down ten runs, Morgan had clearly stolen the bases “out of spite.”

Really Wes? Out of spite? What do you call hitting a guy in the fourth inning of a 14-3 game for something that happened the night before? Sounds pretty spiteful to me.

But no, stealing two bases down 14-3 in the fourth inning after having been freakin’ beaned: totally out of line. How dare he!

After the game, Helms said “We had to show we weren’t going to put up with how he was treating us.”

Pardon my language, but are you effing kidding me? The way he was treating you!?

Well, you know the rest: Morgan comes up again in the sixth inning, pitcher Chris Volstad throws behind him, he charges the mound, a brawl breaks out, blah blah blah blah blah.

I gotta tell ya’, I’ve been watching baseball for a long time, and I am not completely sure I am totally on board with what is going on here.

Where I come from, when a player collides with the catcher on a close play at the plate it is called hustle. Where I come from, when you intentionally plunk a guy in retaliation for something, you don’t then get your panties in a bunch when he makes you pay for intentionally putting him on base.

You want to get Nyjer Morgan back for stealing bases on you? Throw him out.

But let’s not go saying that down by 11 runs in the fourth inning a guy isn’t allowed to steal a base. This isn’t football or basketball; a lot of scoring can happen between the fourth and the ninth innings. On August 22, 2007, the Texas Rangers went into the top of the fourth inning with zero runs and ended up winning the game 30-3, so let’s not pretend the game was over.

And for that matter, if you want to talk about “playing the game the right way,” how about not whining about how an opposing player “treats” you when you’ve just hit him with a pitch and you’re up by eleven runs.

And by the way, I don’t think I’ll take my lectures about how to “play the game the right way” from a guy like Wes Helms, who has never managed to put himself into a regular starting role in his entire career.

Maybe, just maybe, if Helms had been a little more hard-nosed and little less concerned about how he was being “treated” by opposing players, he would have become a full-time major leaguer at some point in his career instead of a part-time role player for the cheapest team in baseball.

Nyjer Morgan will likely be suspended for some length of time for what took place over the last few days, but in my opinion it is the Florida Marlins who have come out of this like a bunch of overly-sensitive goons who don’t play the game the right way.

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When Nyjer Morgan was hit in the hip by a fourth inning Chris Volstad fastball in last night’s game, it was payback for Morgan running over Florida catcher Brett Hayes a night earlier. Late in the game a full-fledged brawl erupted when Morgan was thrown at again.

Hayes suffered a separated shoulder in that home plate collision, a play which need not have happened. The throw from Hanley Ramirez was high and if Morgan slid, he most likely would have been safe. It was the second home plate collision Morgan caused this past week.

But the problem is that runners rounding third and coming home usually decides to knock over the catcher when he is about 20-30 feet from home plate. There is no chance for them to end up sliding.

If they did then try and slide, they might get injured. You see many times when a player slides too late at any base they end up catching a spike in the ground and wrenching or even breaking their ankle.

This is not the first time this season that a runner hurt a catcher on a collision at home plate. Mark Teixeira plowed over Angels catcher Bobby Wilson, injuring Wilson’s head and severely hurting his ankle. What if Teixeira got hurt? Would that run really be worth Tex on the DL for two months?

And how can we not forget about Ray Fosse, whose All-Star career was derailed after Pete Rose barreled him over in the 1970 All-Star Game?

And this type of play does not just end in injury on the spot. It also affects how catchers play the game during the rest of their careers.

Fosse was a power hitting backstop in 1970, smashing 16 home runs by that All-Star break. He finished with only 18 that season, and never hit more than 12 in a season the rest of his career.

Drafted as a second baseman, Yankee catcher Jorge Posada was converted to catcher during his Yankee minor league career. During a minor league game, Posada was run over in a game and seriously injured.

He is now not that good on plays at the plate. He shies away from contact, and many times the ball. The prior collision has affected his play as a catcher throughout his career.

Another Yankee catcher, Francisco Cervelli, broke his wrist in a 2008 home plate collision with Tampa’s Elliot Johnson during a spring training game! That eventually led to a bench clearing brawl when the Yankees Shelley Duncan went in high with his spikes at Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

In that game, Jonny Gomes of the Rays played the Gabby Sanchez role from last night when he came in from right field and tackled Duncan.

From my days of playing, I have been on both ends of the spectrum. I have been run over (still held on to the ball), and have run a guy over (and he held on to the ball). Most of the time, the catcher does hold on to the ball anyway, so why even do it?

The runner risks injury just as much as the catcher. In both occasions when I played, I was sore after each collision. The runner can also be injured on this type of play.

In 2008, David Murphy of the Texas Rangers barreled into Yankees catcher Ivan Rodriguez and Murphy missed the rest of that season with a badly hurt knee.

Running over the catcher is such a bad play on all accounts. The runner is still out on most occasions, someone always get hurt, and the effects can stay with a catcher throughout his career.

I am old-school on everything in baseball. I abhor instant replay, sabermetrics, pitch counts, innings limits, and postseason games only played at night.

So many teams restrict their young pitchers usage so they can “save his arm and prolong his career.” Why then does baseball allow these violent collisions at home plate, when most of the time, someone is injured?  

There is such a severe shortage in quality all around catchers, that MLB and the individual teams simply can’t afford to have a catcher seriously injured.

Base runners should now be required to slide into home plate just as they are required to slide into the other bases. Why should home plate be different?

Runners would be able to dive head first into home plate but to intentionally run over the catcher should be outlawed. After all these collision you might start seeing teams tell their runners to slide into home plate. It just makes sense.

This rule will not avoid all injuries to catchers and young Cleveland Indians backstop Carlos Santana is an example of that, although I still believe that Ryan Kalish would have been safe had he slid to AVOID contact. In the example above on Murphy, he slid feet first into Rodriguez and still was hurt badly.

This rule would not lessen all, but MOST major injuries to catchers, and many injuries to the runners.

And the runners might actually score more runs.

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Well, I suppose you have to do something to liven things up when the two teams playing are a combined 32 games out of first place in their own division, with only a month left to the season. This goes double when the game is already a blowout in the sixth inning.

The Marlins and Nationals apparently decided to liven things up, ironically, by trying to kill each other.

Well, it was a little more complicated than that.

In the top of the 6th inning of a 15-5 drubbing, Nationals center fielder Nyjer Morgan evidently took umbrage at the fact that the Marlins were throwing at him, and charged the mound. What Morgan (generously listed at “six feet” tall and 175 lbs) thought he was going to do to Chris Volstad (6’8″, 230 lbs) is beyond my comprehension.

For his part, Volstad seemed singularly unimpressed as Morgan charged at him, throwing his glove down in arrogance and dodging Morgan’s only real punch, that jumping left hook he learned from watching too many action movies.

It didn’t work.

And, I would guess that among the things going through Morgan’s mind as he ran out to the mound, he probably didn’t imagine being flattened by a man named “Gaby.”

Instead, Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez, not much taller but about 50 pounds heavier than Morgan, clotheslined him and brought him to the ground, whereupon everyone else joined in the scrum. It took 10 or 15 minutes for the figurative dust to settle, and when it did, both Volstad and Morgan had been ejected, of course.

Additionally, Florida manager Edwin Rodriguez (presumably for complicity in, if not actually ordering the plunking) and relief pitcher Jose Veras, whose only crime as far as I can tell was that he happened to be standing next to one of the umpires when they were looking for another scapegoat, were also ejected.

During the course of the brawl, various players, coaches, and even (I think) the Nationals bullpen catcher had gotten into the mix. Nationals third base coach Pat Listach was clobbering Volstad at the bottom of the melee, and others can clearly be seen throwing hard punches on the video replay, but nobody else was ousted.

In most of the highlight reels, Morgan ends up looking like the bad guy, and with good reason.  Namely, that he makes himself look like a bad guy. I mean, not like a Hitler-type of bad guy, more the professional wrestler type of bad guy.

A guy who shoots off his mouth and tries to back his words up with action and even when he’s more or less defeated, feels the need to save face by, well, yelling more. A guy who seemingly walks around all the time as though he’s still hitting the .351 he smacked for the Nats last year, rather than the .257 mark he’s posted this year.

The truth, however, is rarely that simple.

The problem did not start in the top of the sixth on Wednesday night. It didn’t even start Wednesday, but rather Tuesday night, in a scoreless tie in the top of the 10th inning. Running full speed, Morgan bowled over Marlins’ catcher Brett Hayes, trying to score from second base on a fielder’s choice grounder to shortstop Hanley Ramirez. The result was a separated shoulder for Hayes and probably the end of his season.

Morgan went back to touch the plate, just in case, but Hayes had held onto the ball, and he was out. Reportedly, Morgan didn’t say anything to Hayes either then or after the game, and evidently the Marlins didn’t appreciate that. I guess they think that an opposing player ought to apologize for trying to win the game any way he can, even though it was essentially a clean play that just ended badly for their guy.

What they should have taken exception to, if anything, was the slow reaction and lazy throw to home plate, which clocked only 69 miles per hour.

Ramirez has a major league shortstop’s arm, and is certainly capable of throwing a baseball at 90 mph, perhaps more. But this lobbed throw forced Hayes to catch it as Morgan came barreling towards him, giving him no time to set himself for the collision. A 90 mph throw would have given him an extra 0.2 seconds to set himself, which is longer than it sounds like, and might have helped him to stave off injury.

For that matter, if Ramirez had been paying closer attention to Morgan, he might have seen him running full steam sooner and therefore given Hayes enough time to avoid the collision all together. If the Marlins are looking to blame someone for Hayes’ injury, they need look no further than their own All-Star shortstop.

Morgan, for his part, was just playing heads-up baseball—risking injury to himself as well, it should be noted—trying to win a scoreless, extra-inning game for his team. His effort to hit the catcher hard enough to dislodge the ball is no more or less than thousands of players have done in thousands of baseball games over the last century and a half of professional baseball.

That the Marlins didn’t appreciate the outcome—and they did eventually win the game, after all—is their problem.

But they didn’t see it that way. With the score 14-3 Marlins, with one out in the top of the fourth inning the next night, Morgan came to bat, and the Fish saw their opportunity. Volstad hit him with a 92 mph fastball and then stared Morgan down, waiting for a reaction. Nyjer didn’t give him the satisfaction though, turning away from the pitcher, briefly rubbing his highly-padded elbow and scampering down to first base.

But the Marlins made a bad gamble, doing for Morgan the one thing he’s largely been unable to do for himself this year: they put him on base. While Morgan is not a terribly effective base stealer, on a pace to lead the NL in times caught for the second time in his career, he also had 30 successful steals so far this year, so he’s nothing if not fast.

Plus, he’s got a chip on his shoulder and a reason to show them up now, so he stole second base, and then stole third three pitches later. That gave him all the opportunity he needed to score a run when the Marlins’ second baseman Donnie Murphy stumbled and sustained an injury catching a pop-up. They really showed him, huh?

So the Marlins, feeling that the “lesson” had not yet sunk into Morgan’s head, decided to try to sink a baseball into it instead. But Volstad missed this time, throwing behind him and eliciting the Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon response you’ve probably already seen a dozen times on SportsCenter.

Obviously warnings were given to both benches after the fracas, so when Gaby Sanchez got plunked an inning later both pitcher Doug Slaten and manager Jim Riggleman were ejected. Everyone else was allowed to finish their regularly scheduled program, in the form of a 16-10 trouncing that was frankly an embarrassment for both franchises.

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Wednesday night’s Nationals-Marlins benches-clearing brawl, which could have arguably been started via the Marlins bench after Nyjer Morgan was “unsportsmanlike” in stealing second and third with a Nationals deficit, and Morgan’s WWE-like exit from the field may have been the icing on the cake for Morgan’s season.

Just a week and a half ago, Morgan showed his immaturity by throwing a ball into the stands, hurting a fan. Major League Baseball slapped him with a seven-game suspension, which Morgan is appealing. I do not think Wednesday’s incident will help Morgan’s case in getting that suspension shortened.

Bud Selig needs to review Wednesday’s incident, along with Tuesday’s “controversial home plate collision” that may have ended catcher Brett Hayes’ season with a separated shoulder.

Now do not get me wrong; I am not against hard-nosed players like Morgan, but this case is a call for an indefinite suspension for the remainder of the season.

Selig needs to take a page out of Roger Goodell’s NFL punishment book and show that this sort of behavior is not tolerated in Major League Baseball and try to show the rest of the league that immature behavior like this is not tolerated while wearing a major or minor league uniform.

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That guy is just out of control. First the cheap shot on Bryan Anderson, then he throws a ball at a fan, then he takes out another catcher, tells another fan to “shut up fat b****,” then steals second and third down 11 runs, then charges the mound and jaws with the fans again on the way off the field.

Seriously, this guy is totally out of control. He shouldn’t be playing baseball, and honestly the guy probably needs to be in therapy. He definitely shouldn’t play the rest of the year for the Nationals.

By the way, remember the Nationals traded “bad apple” Lastings Milledge for Morgan. I don’t remember Milledge ever doing anything remotely similar to this. Or Elijah Dukes for that matter.

Also, this really reflects badly on Jim Riggleman. He’s the guy who let this situation get out of control, and it doesn’t help him that his third base coach Pat Listach jumped right in the middle of the bench-clearing brawl and had to be pulled out by a player. Looked like John McLaren was right in there too.

Oh, and in all this craziness, let’s not forget that Scott Olsen raised his ERA to 5.88. Can anyone explain why he’s still here?

Now Riggleman orders Doug Slaten to hit Gaby Sanchez with a pitch, warming up Drew Storen to replace Doug Slaten just in case it wasn’t totally clear what was going on. This is not the way to help the young guys transition to the bigs.

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