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Ok, it's time for a response from Indiana.
I've got absolutely no problem with what the suspensions handed down today, and I'm a huge Pacers fan. First and foremost, those players are professionals whether they want to be or not. You cannot go into the stands and do what they did.
Now onto the officiating part of it: In hockey, if you really pay attention, the linesmen get out of the way until the players fall to the ice so that can be more easily separated. If you think back to Friday night, the referees were trying to separate the teams on the court, but it was 20 players/coaches and only 3 referees. That isn't going to work.
The same thing in softball or baseball -- you've got at least 9 players from the defensive team on the field plus the offensive players and you want the 2 (or 3) umpires to keep them from going at it -- IT'S NOT HAPPENING!. If you think back to when the Red Sox and Yankees went at it in June of this year, Bruce Froemming was the plate umpire and he was trying to keep A-rod and Varitek apart, but he couldn't do it all. He simply got out of dodge because you can't keep all those people apart. I have had a fight in a game once, and all you can do is stand back and take all the numbers you can. Besides, I'm not getting in there because I'm not going to get injured.
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