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Basebrawler Nyjer Morgan used to be a Regina Pat, teammate of Derek Boogaard

Nyjer Morgan

Washington Nationals’ Nyjer Morgan, center, is le off the field after a brawl during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Florida Marlins, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

AP

In case you hadn’t heard around the Internet today, baseball player and Washington Nationals outfielder Nyjer Morgan caused a bit of a stir last night against the Florida Marlins by charging the mound and then getting his clock cleaned by Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez while charging after pitcher Chris Volstad.

While we’re certainly not Hardball Talk over here, there’s actually a tie-in to hockey and one that helps make Sanchez’s blindside takedown a bit easier for Morgan to handle. You see, Nyjer Morgan wasn’t always a baseball player, he used to play junior hockey for the WHL Regina Pats.

If you’re wondering if Morgan was able to pick up any of his hot temper hints from his teammates back in his 1999-2000 season with the Pats, you better believe he did as he was teammates with current NHLers Blues defenseman Barret Jackman, former Blue Jackets and Sens defenseman Filip Novak and a guy by the name of Derek Boogaard. Don’t suppose that Nyjer Morgan learned how to keep his head up in Pats practice though given the way he got cleaned out by Sanchez. Doing that in practice with the Boogie Man on the ice might’ve ended any career attempt for him.

Of course, as one might suspect, there’s always one writer who will take everything out of context in hilarious fashion and try to blame Morgan’s recent wrestling-heel behavior and blame it on hockey. Enter the Phanatic Magazine saying it was Morgan’s hockey upbringing that made him violent.

That’s why it should come as any surprise to any baseball fan who knows the game of hockey that the Morgan-Volstad meeting which sparked the brawl played out the way it did. Though clearly at a size disadvantage, Morgan faced bigger and more motivated kids in Moose Jaw and Red Deer than Volstad, so, of course he wasn’t going to back down.

He came in with elbows up and right hand cocked in battle position, like smaller players are taught when facing a fight. So what if he didn’t land it the way he wanted? He got the only shot in. He took care of the situation the way he was trained.

Well that’s just crazy. If you’re going to go out on the precarious limb to call a baseball fight to be anything similar to a hockey fight you better have the video evidence to back it up. Frankly Nyjer Morgan’s dust up with the Marlins is nothing at all like a hockey fight. The only time I can recall seeing that kind of take down on the ice during a line brawl was March 26, 1997 when Brendan Shanahan of the Red Wings intercepted Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy at center ice to prevent him from getting mixed up with Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux.

Nyjer Morgan might have some issues, but growing up a hockey player isn’t one of them. It just makes him a much more interesting person to follow in baseball as far as us hockey-minded people are concerned. After all, we never saw former Kings draft pick and Braves all-time superstar Tom Glavine ever throw a punch before.