We now know the fallout from yesterday's not-so-surprising altercation, and once again, Bud Selig and the rest of the league office have topped themselves in terms of the level of ridiculousness of their penalties. For starters, yesterday's most dastardly offender, Johnny Gomes (who went all UFC-MMA-ground-and-pound on the Sox and could be seen winding up to clock Coco in the ribs several times as our fourth outfielder lay immobilized and constrained by the far more weighty Dioner Navarro), was suspended for just 5 games. Rays starter James Shields, who started this whole mess when he plunked Pedroia in the first and then proceeded to pitch way too far inside on Coco an inning later, narrowly missing the braided one's coin purse? 6 games (i.e. 2 starts). Big whoop.

How about Coco Crisp, who was the focal point of much controversy after Game 1 of the series for his decision to take out Akinori Iwamura on a hard slide late in the game due to his anger over Jason Bartlett's catcher-esque blocking of second base on an earlier steal attempt (and who technically initiated last night's fight as it was his decision to charge the mound after getting hit)? 7 games, the most of anyone involved in the fracas. Other players receiving penalties: Jon Lester (5 games), Sean Casey (3 games), Edwin Jackson (5 games), Carl Crawford (4 games), Iwamura (3 games).

I'm not so upset with the number of players penalized and which players actually ended up with suspensions, more with the fact that Coco came away with the longest penalty when there were 2 Rays (i.e. Gomes and Shields) whose infractions were far more severe. The precedents being set here (1 - It's more acceptable to hit two batters in blatant retaliatory fashion than it is to defend yourself and your teammate by confronting a punk pitcher; 2 - It's more acceptable to sprint out of the dugout, interject yourself into a situation in which you were not previously involved, and mercilessly flail at a man that can't even move than it is to defend yourself and your teammate.) are simply ridiculous. After turning a corner on the previously flimsy steroid policy, the league should now tackle the subjective nature of their penalization system for circumstances like these so that penalties become more uniform across different situations. Along these lines, Buster Olney appropriately called for the league office to "throw the book" at Johnny Gomes, but as we know, they decided to "throw the book" at the target of Gomes' cowardly attacks, Coco Crisp. Bit backwards, no?

Either way, it's nice to see a bit of fire from the usually mopey and soft-spoken Crisp, eh?