Phillies and Giants Brawl in the Bay: What MLB Must Do to Handle Growing Rivalry

A Friday Night Fight! 

On a crisp August night in San Francisco, perfect conditions were marred only by a slight chilly wind that all in the Bay have come to terms with. The night was pristine, the teams loaded as they continued their very definitive four game series—definitive in the sense that this series will define, or dictate, the rest of the regular season until these two teams meet again in the playoffs. 

Right now, the San Francisco Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies are the two best teams in the National League and dominate the national headlines.

The defending champion Giants are tops in the NL West, commanding the division for the majority of the season even though they have struggled to produce offensively and last season's impenetrable bullpen has faltered this season. The Giants added the first big player at the trade deadline, grabbing Carlos Beltran from the New York Mets. 

The Phillies are owners of the best record in the entire Major Leagues, with a starting pitching rotation that makes all other 29 teams quake in their boots. Other than the loss in the 2010 NLCS to the Giants, the Phillies have been on a run that has not been seen since the Yankee dynasty. The sheer dominance of the Phillies makes them so intimidating, as they seemingly run off five or six wins in a row without batting an eye. 

The intensity of the 2010 NLCS was great for baseball. Despite the power arms of the Phillies' Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt, the Giants had the quirky personality and unbelievable talent to overcome them. Countering with their own fleet of incredible arms, the Giants' Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez and closer Brian Wilson carried the Giants over the Phillies and onto their first World Series championship in San Francisco. 

The hatred between the two clubs has been evident ever since their first meeting last week in Philadelphia. The Giants won two of three from the hot Phillies, stifling the Phillies lineup thanks to Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. The Giants looked like they were on the verge of figuring out their season-long issues and putting together a run. 

However, after that series, the Phillies have not lost a game and have won eight games in a row. The Giants are 3-7 in their last 10 games. The Phillies have dominated the first two games of this critical four-game series, and the Giants' frustrations boiled over Friday night when relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez beaned Shane Victorino on purpose. 

Benches cleared, Shane Victorino lived up to his nickname as "The Flyin' Hawaiian" by nose-diving into the scrum, hoping to catch anyone in a Giants uniform and inflict some hurt. Phillies second baseman Placido Polanco took a hit from catcher Eli Whiteside that was extremely unfair, and that's before you even see Whiteside had catcher's gear on. 

So What's MLB To Do?

Do they squelch the new and quickly growing rivalry?

Suspending the instigating players like Ramon Ramirez, Eli Whiteside and Shane Victorino for a sizable amount of games would help defuse the situation and make a statement that violence is never the answer.

Major League Baseball is currently dealing with a changing attitude from players would believe they can assault the umpires, and this problem is growing rapidly. The best thing the MLB can do is to lay down the law and say this behavior is not tolerated. Leave it on the field, boys. Don't resort to fists and scuffles. 

Do they make it such a big deal that it evaporates into thin air after a couple weeks?

By media blitzing the brawl and the two teams to death about this incident, it could kill any hopes for a real hatred. The best thing the MLB can do is to make such a big deal about it, as to gain attention and increase interest in this slow and lackluster summer of baseball.

Last summer, a brawl between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals in the middle of August sparked thousands of people wanting to chime in with their two cents. A fight is sometimes the best thing for a baseball team, and sometimes it can even be good for baseball as an institution. But if MLB turns the Giants and Phillies against the media and not against the other team, the purpose is defeated. 

Will MLB take a step back and let the rivalry grow on its own?

This option might not work either, considering the two teams will not play again until the playoffs. And that is only if both teams advance or magically get paired up playing each other in the NLDS, in which the winner of that series should be able to prance his way to the World Series no problem.

If the media and MLB fail to take any action, this rivalry goes away after Sunday's series finale and much of the buzz is gone, taking away many fair-weather fans who are only into baseball when a big-name team is front and center. 

It will be interesting to see which course of action Commissioner Bud Selig takes and what decisions he tells the media and his top people in the MLB to make. Whatever the outcome, this Friday night created a lot more national buzz than most previous Friday nights this season combined.