NEW YORK _ Wednesday night's Yankees-Red Sox bench-and-bullpen-clearing brawl at Fenway Park was just the latest act in one of baseball's longest-running plays.
As Billy Joel sang in his 1989 smash hit:
"We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning."
Hard-sliding baserunners from Ty Cobb to Chase Utley and hard-throwing pitchers from Walter Johnson to Roger Clemens have always been part of baseball.
Wednesday's brawl came after a pitch from Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly hit Yankees DH Tyler Austin, who four innings earlier had made a controversial slide _ one reminiscent of Hall of Famer Cobb _ into shortstop Brock Holt.
"The basepaths belonged to me, the runner," Cobb once said. "I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault."
The brawl was viewed over and over on TV and websites, and baseball suddenly seemed a lot more interesting to casual fans.
Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez, who was involved in many Yankees-Red Sox skirmishes, fired off a series of #YankeesvsRedSox tweets including: "Sliding with the cleats up is a no-no in baseball. That means fight fight fight!"
Chipper Jones, recently elected to the Hall of Fame after a 19-year career with the Braves, echoed the sentiment in a tweet of his own: "U slide in with ur spikes up and catch a piece, ur gonna get thrown at young fella. That's how baseball works. It polices itself, whether people like it or not. That will never change. Love the spirit in both squads though."
In another tweet, Martinez said, "The only thing I would had done different than Joe Kelly tonight is I would've hit Tyler Austin at his previous at- bat. Other than that, Kelly executed perfectly."
Major League Baseball has invoked sliding rules to protect players from injury, although some believe the rules go too far.
"We're babying the game way too much nowadays," Martinez tweeted.
