It’s really amazing this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often. I’m talking, of course, about Jose Offerman going Juan Marichal on John Nathans and Matt Beech last Tuesday, attacking both with a bat after getting hit by pitch. It’s really amazing that we went 42 years without seeing an incident like that.

The irony is how different this incident will be treated in this day and age. Back in the day with Marichal, Johnny Roseboro needed 14 stitches to close up his head… this time, Nathan suffered a concussion. Offerman, unlike Marichal, was arrested and will likely be charged with assault. Roseboro did sue Marichal back in the day (settled out of court,) but both wound up becoming good friends, actually signing photographs of the infamous brawl. Odds of that happening now are extremely slim.

Those were the good old days, when players could fight it out, get it over with and deal with it themselves without baseball officials, the law and the media whipping the story into a frenzy. Instead of a funny story two friends tell at an autograph signing, this will surely turn into an endless negative story and legal matter in the modern age.