Barbarity should be banned.

By now you've seen and learned about the revolting confrontations between the Oakland As and Kansas City Royals this weekend.  There was a slide into second base in which the slider used poor judgement in that the second baseman had no chance to complete a double play.  I noticed at least two other such slides over the weekend in other series.  That rule needs to be cleaned up.

But the barbarity of pitchers intentionally throwing a baseball at a batter at over 90 miles per hour at the impact point and released from about 50 feet away should no longer be tolerated.  Part of what was amazing about the Oak-KC multiple game gang fight is that there was never an actual fight.  That would have been far more civilized.  That's how barbaric this baseball ethic is.  The batter is supposed to just take it and not retaliate.  If there is to be retaliation, it is supposed to come from a pitcher on the hit batter's team and often against an innocent batter on the other team.

How did we get to this point?  How does any reasonable person in 2015 think that this makes sense? Am I the only one who has had enough?  Why do we tolerate this?

Intentionally hitting batters should be banned and pitchers who violate this should be suspended without pay for increasingly long periods and banned forever if they persist.  The players association should support it. They now support players being suspended for violations related to the use of performance enhancing drugs (PED) even if a player has not failed a drug test.  See Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun, Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta, and about ten more from 2013 alone.

PED use pales in comparison to batters being smashed (not plunked) with fastballs of increasing velocity. Possible damage: injured internal organs (including the kidneys), broken bones, brain damage, loss of eyesight, death.  Fans cheering this stuff is inexcusable.