Baseball Free-for-All

Am I the only one who thinks that there's been an inordinate amount of brawls in baseball so far? Maybe it's because this season I've been watching Sportscenter more frequently this season, but it seems that not a day goes by without a batter charging the mound. And the thing that irritates me is that you can tell that the majority of these players don't really want to fight. Every time a guy gets plunked, he stomps around the batters box for a few seconds yelling at the pitcher. See, this gives the batters teammates time to clear the dugout so that they can hold him back when he eventually does start running at the mound. It's all too clear that mound-charging is an archaic form of baseball retribution that's so ingrained into the game, that players feel they must participate even when they have no desire to be violent. I think players need to quit with all the huffing and puffing and do one of two things: 1) either charge the mound with genuine anger and really go after the pitcher or 2) turn their vocal frustration to the umpire, who has the power to eject the pitcher. This is what they do in basketball, and it's an effective tactic for levying a penalty on the other team while the victimized player avoids ejection and possible suspension.