How do you feel about bench-clearing brawls in baseball?

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Cubs fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

This week, we asked SB Nation FanPulse members across the baseball sites this question. The results surprised me:

Seriously? Nearly 60 percent of respondents think that a fight is something that’s “okay” in baseball?

My vote is an emphatic “no,” and I hope yours was as well. Just like intentionally throwing a baseball at someone, charging the mound or clearing the benches just isn’t part of the game as far as I’m concerned, or shouldn’t be. There are, or should be, other ways of settling disputes. Players have been injured in these brawls and can’t play. That’s obviously not optimal.

Fortunately, these sorts of things have become less frequent in big-league games. That’s a good thing. In 1965, Dodgers catcher John Roseboro was attacked by Giants pitcher Juan Marichal, who thought Roseboro was slinging pitches back to the pitcher too close to his head, with a bat in his hand:

Getty Images

Fortunately, no one was injured and in later years, Roseboro and Marichal became friends. I think MLB should crack down on these sorts of things; perhaps they and the MLBPA can come to an agreement on penalties for starting brawls or being the “third man in,” as the NHL does. That’s helped reduce fighting in that league.

Just play ball, gentlemen.

For the Cubs, your confidence in the team went up a bit in the latest survey:

Specifically, that’s at 31 percent, up from a season-low 18 percent last week. Those numbers are still the two lowest of the season. A good weekend in Milwaukee would boost that number next week.

Approval of Joe Maddon’s job performance went up slightly, from 68 percent last week to 72 percent. It’s always been my feeling that the Cubs’ troubles aren’t on Joe, rather, the front office has to take a lot of responsibility.

You can still make your voice heard in FanPulse! Sign up at the link at the top of this post.