I really don't mean to sound so anti-baseball...

...but I can't help myself this time. Last night's Dodgers/Phillies LCS Game 3 brought out my biggest dislike for "America's Pastime."

I think it was in the first or second inning. Dodger catcher Russell Martin is up to bat. He gets plunked.

OK. No big deal, right? He goes to first base.

Martin is up to bat again an inning or two later. He nearly gets hit again. He gives the Phillies reliever (I can't remember his name, and that really isn't what's important here) a prolonged stare.

Alright, so let's halt this story right there. If, in fact, the Phillies ARE intentially throwing at Martin, the question then becomes...why? What would their motivation be?

I can't answer that question. Maybe someone on the Phillies staff can. Or maybe they'd just play dumb and say something like "oh, it wasn't intentional."

OK, back to the story. The next inning, Shane Victorino is up to bat for the Phillies. Hiroki Kuroda is on the mound for L.A. What happens? Kuroda whizzes a 94-mph fastball over Victorino's head.

Shane takes exception, and yada-yada-yada, the benches end up clearing before the end of the inning.

This drives me absolutely insane. This aspect of baseball - the "if you throw at one of our guys we're gonna throw at one of yours."

Lets get back into the context of the game. The Phillies are losing, and their pitchers aren't throwing strikes. Maybe a few pitches happened to come inside to Russell Martin. Maybe a few were SUPPOSED to come inside to Russell Martin (no one knows for sure). The bottom line is that they weren't helping themselves by pitching out of the strike zone.

Wouldn't the rational thought be to come out and "mow down" the Phillies hitters? Strike out the side? Demoralize them? Put the game completely out of reach? I hoped the Dodgers would have thought this way.

Instead, Kuroda decided to lower himself to the Phillies level. He decided to go with the thought process of "anything you can do I can do better." And everyone says he had to. Everyone says he had to stick up for his teammates (Martin, in particular).

Why couldn't he just throw strikes? Why couldn't he continue to pitch so well? Why couldn't he forgo the extracurricular junk and focus on striking out the side?

I dont get it. When I was growing up playing sports, my coaches always told me to "be the bigger man." If someone picks a fight with you, just walk away. I remember one basketball coach saying to me "if they wanna mess around and start fights, you just go out there and hang 20 on them...that'll shut them up."

But apparently baseball players didn't grow up the way I did. Apparently no one told them the benefits of being the "bigger man."

Think about what this is doing to youth baseball leagues across the country. Some kid thinks an inside pitch is too close, so the next inning he goes head-hunting with his fastball. Not to sound like a parent or anything, but is that really the way we want kids playing baseball?

I hope not. And I hope I'm not alone.