Brewers-Pirates Brawl Could Create Good Rivalry Later

Photo Courtesy of SI.com

It may still be early in the season, but who doesn't like fireworks.

In Sunday's contest between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park, Carlos Gomez took a mighty swing and flipped his bat. For those of you who aren't familiar with bat-flipping, it's usually done when a player believes he has hit a home run off an opposing pitcher. 

This was not the case for Carlos Gomez.

Gomez hit a ball deep to center, but it stayed in the park and the Brewers outfielder had to settle for a triple. Truthfully, the matter could have ended there and you wouldn't be reading this particular blog. But it didn't. Pirates pitcher Norris Cole felt the need to address the bat flip by Gomez, one thing led to another and the game turned into the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

While Gomez has been a problem in previous games hot-dogging and mouthing off to pitchers, this instance could have been avoided if handled differently. Any other pitcher may have very simply gone on to the next batter and waited for Gomez to show up in the batter's box to plunk him. In that scenario, maybe a fight breaks out. Maybe not. But Cole honestly didn't need to go there. I'm not sure what else happened with Cole that day. I'm not sure if his dog ran away or if someone peed in his Apple Jacks, but it could've been avoided. I know you're saying, "Em, you would've done the same thing Cole did if you were in his shoes." False. He didn't score. So, there was no harm done. The inning could have been salvaged.

Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com

But I will say one thing about this feud. With both teams being in the National League Central, we could very easily see more fireworks between these two teams later in the year. It could provide a lot of intrigue (not that there isn't enough in that division) in how this race pans out...especially if it comes down to these two...and it very well could. Milwaukee has had a hot start to the season and Pittsburgh is fourth with an 8-11 record. There's a lot of time for this whole division to change hands.

By the way, if you're wondering...I'm picking the St. Louis Cardinals to win the division.