Pic of the Week

I'd say these three were giving each other a piece of
their minds, but if you added it up you might still
be shy a fully functional brain.

What we have here are three guys in the wrong.

You probably know this incident already: On Wednesday Carlos Gomez hit a long home run off Atlanta southpaw Paul Maholm. The two apparently have had a contentious past — Maholm, I know, has hit Gomez twice with pitches — and Gomez stood at home plate for a good while to admire his blast. The he jawed with various Braves on his slow trot around the bases (which, if you'll recall, is rather unlike Go-Go, who is known from sprinting out his homers).

And when Gomez approached home plate, there was Brian McCann, the Atlanta catcher, blocking the path and spoiling for a fight. Which then broke out.

Paul Nauert is the home plate ump in the photo. Why he stood by as McCann set out to toss a lighted match on the gasoline Gomez had spread over the game is a mystery. How it is that he ejected Gomez but not McCann is even more baffling. (The first base ump, Doug Eddings, was credited with tossing two Braves after the ruckus, first baseman Freddie Freeman and reserve catcher Gerald Laird.)

Gomez got a one-game suspension. McCann was fined an unspecified amount. It's not public information if anything was done about the umpiring crew that let things get out of hand, but were it my call, none of the four would be working a postseason game.