It was a big weekend for beanballs and bench-clearings in baseball, which outside of fighting in hockey might be the thing in sports about which we feel most guilty about enjoying. Someone got hit with a 95 mph pitch? Cool! Let's hope this escalates and somebody really gets pounded!

We can't help the animal instinct for some reason, even if we know better.

In case you somehow missed it, A-Rod was plunked Sunday night by Red Sox pitcher Ryan Demptster. The first pitch was behind him. The count went to 3-0, and Dempster drilled him. So the intent was clear.

The bad news (well, the bad news aside from being Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who was so upset about the beaning that he was tossed) is that this somehow made A-Rod a sympathetic figure to some, particularly when he homered later in the game. Baseball needs NOTHING that turns A-Rod into a good guy or a hero. Understood? Good.

The other brawl was a little further under the radar. Former Twins player Doug Mientkiewicz, now managing at Ft. Myers, mixed it up pretty good during a bench-clearer.

We're not exactly sure what happened, but even a day later tensions seemed to be a little high according to this story:

A day after the bench-clearing brawl in which Fort Myers Miracle manager Doug Mientkiewicz raced out of his home dugout and took Bradenton Marauder manager Frank Kremblas to the ground, leading to their ejections, both men managed their teams against one another again.

This time, the Miracle played Sunday evening in Bradenton in a game that was eventually suspended in the third inning after torrential rain.

Mientkiewicz, 39 and in his first season managing the Miracle, said in a text message to "ask their manager" as to what angered him to the point of leaving the dugout. Mientkiewicz declined any further comment and instructed his players not to talk about the brawl as well.

Strangely enough, there is a unifying theme to all this aside from just brawling: A-Rod and Dougie Baseball went to high school together.