Ethics Behind Charging the Mound

     With the start of the 2015 Royals regular season, we saw an unrealistic amount of hit-by-pitch's against the Royals, which led to several team brawls, none of the Royals actually charged the mound, but they sure came close to it. With this in mind I want to talk about the ethics of charging the mound.
     Charging the mound is an assault by the batter against a pitcher which is usually the result of getting hit by an intentional pitch or nearly getting hit by an intentional pitch. This assault is usually brought upon after a few other players have been hit in a game as a form of retaliation. It sounds odd, but many teams use hitting opposing team's batters as a form of protection. It's obviously not protection in the sense that they will most likely get hit later on in the game, but it sends a message that we protect each other as teammates and we aren't afraid of getting ejected for having our teammates back. This idea often extends to the point where batters charge the mound out of retaliation and frustration.
     When a batter chargers the mound he is immediately ejected due to the fact that his sole reasoning of heading to the pitchers mound is with intent to injure the pitcher that just hit him intentionally. This brings up the case of ethics when it comes to charging the mound. Batters often throw their bat or helmet in disgust before charging the mound because charging the mound with your bat would be unethical considering it is used as a weapon in many parts of the world. Although this seems like a reasonable act of ethical thinking, a few players have thrown the whole ethical thinking out the window and actually charged the pitcher with the bat still in hand, which doesn't end well. Usually, the best player on the team or the designated hitter on an American League team gets hit considering pitchers do not hit in the AL, but in the NL pitchers do hit, so they often get retaliated against in the form of a 95+ mph fastball in the middle of the back.
     The ethics of charging the mind are all dependent upon the situation of the game. For instance, the batter needs to take the situational factors into consideration before he starts assaulting the pitcher. These factors can be if he is the best player on the team, if he's pitching, whether or not the game is close, how many players have been hit, etc. It's always fun to see someone charge the mound but sometimes the ethics are thrown out the window in the heat of the moment.