It's hard to think of a more one-sided "rivalry" in sports than the one currently contested between the Pirates and the Brewers. Before the Pirates' 8-5 win last night, the Brewers had taken 17 straight games between the two teams, dating back to May 22 of last season. Somehow (or maybe because of the losing streak, though the Pirates rarely seem to be the initiating team) a lot of bad blood has boiled up between the two teams, and it came to a head (again) Monday night in the eighth inning. Last night's mini-altercation started when Brewers' reliever Chris Smith beaned Pirates' reliever Jeff Karstens. Karstens, you may recall, beaned Ryan Braun back in May, which sent Braun over the edge and led to some ridiculous and vague threats that never materialized. So Karstens got the message and started walking towards Smith, when he was intercepted by Jason Kendall, who appeared to point to first base. This is when things got interesting.
The benches cleared at this point and shortly after, Pirates' pitching coach Joe Kerrigan and Kendall were shown on TV screaming at each other, with both having to be restrained from what would've presumably been the funniest old-man fight that's taken place in a baseball game in some time. After the game was over, Kendall was clearly upset with Kerrigan, repeatedly referring to him by the apparently fictional name, "Dave Kerwin."
"I was OK until Dave Kerwin started yelling at me," said Kendall, who ignored the correction [to Kerrigan's name]. "I'm not going to get yelled at. He started yelling at me and ... I'm OK until someone starts yelling at me.Kendall led off the next inning and was not beaned, but given the length of the Brewers' ridiculous beanball memory (the original beaning took place in April and no brawls ensued during the rest of the series despite three Pirate batters being beaned in the next game) I hardly think this is over.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it's not over because the Brewers take ridiculous offense to just about everything. Last year, Prince Fielder tried to pick a fight with Matt Capps over a similar incident and earlier this year, Braun took offense to a pitch from Ryan Dempster that was thrown up and in.
It sort of sounds like, just maybe, the Brewers take offense to just about everything that happens on the field that they don't like.