Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a terrific holiday weekend. It’s time to get back into the happenings in the sports world though. While we await the NBA Finals, baseball took center stage during Memorial Day weekend. Truthfully, it was a pretty ho-hum sports weekend until yesterday. It’s a short but sweet “Weekend Recap” this week so lets get right to it. No Tiger Woods stuff though, I think that’s been pretty much covered by just about everyone. Let’s focus on the fun stuff from the weekend.

MLB: Harper Gets Plunked. A Brawl Starts. Internet Hilarity Ensues.

Aside from the injury to Mike Trout, the biggest news in baseball this weekend came from the Nationals-Giants game yesterday. Washington led 2-0 in the top of the eighth inning when Bryce Harper stepped up to the plate against Hunter Strickland. All it took was one pitch to make years of pent up aggression explode like a powder keg.

Harper and Strickland have a little bit of history between each other. During the 2014 postseason, Harper got the best of Strickland during the series between Washington and San Francisco. Harper blasted two home runs off the Giants reliever, and if history has told us anything, this is a pitching staff that does not have a short memory (ex. anything Madison Bumgarner has done in the past five years). The pair would not face each other again for a while after that playoff series.

Flash-forward almost three years to yesterday, and Strickland wasted no time getting a measure of payback on Harper. As you could probably imagine, Harper did not take that lightly and charged the mound. The pair exchanged a few “punches” before the benches cleared and both teams dealt with the situation.

It was a classic encounter that definitely ranks up there with some of the more iconic brawls in recent history. Now this wasn’t Yankees-Red Sox good, but this was great for pretty much everything but the actual fight. In fact there is a laundry list of reasons why this can be classified under the “so bad, its good” category.

Here is the MESN footage of the brawl from yesterday. Let’s look at some of the more interesting elements of the fracas.

You have the Washington announcers allude to the history between the two, setting the stage for the pitch beautifully. You could feel that they sensed something might be happening in a moment or two. The “Woah” after ten seconds of dead air was just too perfect by the way.

Harper’s initial reaction is typical, but the helmet throw is either hilariously bad, or a bit of schoolyard strategy. You make the call. Of course there is the WWE-style open hand punches. All you were missing was wrestling announcer Jim Ross losing his mind during the brawl.

Both teams leave the dugout within seconds of Harper making his move, so before either Strickland or Harper getting another punch in, the teams are there to muck up the proceedings. Gloriously, Jeff Samardzija and Michael Morse crash the fight like two cars going head on into each other, completely missing the combatants. Now after a few seconds of chaos, order comes over both teams as they separate Harper and Strickland. But we aren’t done with things just yet.

Harper seems pretty cool having gotten his punch in after getting plunked. Strickland, on the other hand, is far from finished with Harper. It takes four teammates to get Strickland off the field and into the dugout. You almost got the sense that he would try the “I’m cool” trick to get loose and try to go all Jonathan Papelbon on Harper (scrub to 1:12).

My favorite part of the whole incident is Giants catcher Buster Posey. If you watch closely, you notice that he just lets Harper make is move. Typically the catcher usually tries to be the buffer and diffuse the situation. From the moment Harper points the bat at Strickland, you would think Posey is going to step in. Not yesterday though.

That is one of the interesting subplots to the brawl, but if I had to guess, it seems like Strickland’s claim of the pitch not being intentional isn’t so genuine. Posey’s inaction is proof of that. Regardless, he allowed the brawl to happen and enter Internet infamy.

NHL: Pens “Steal” Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals

The Stanley Cup Final got started last night, and boy did we get treated to an interesting first game between Pittsburgh and Nashville. I’ll talk more about the rest of the series tomorrow but for now let’s focus on the action from last night. Now there is a big reason why Pittsburgh “stole” the game last night. Spoiler alert, Pittsburgh won 5-3 in a game that they were pretty much outplayed.

First of all, the P.K. Subban overturned goal may have changed this entire series. It would have sent a serious message to the defending champs and gave a ton of momentum to the Predators. While the league office has been pleased with the offsides challenge, I think that I speak for most fans when I say that it is a garbage challenge. Yes, offsides can affect a play that happens within a few seconds of entering the offensive zone. Anything more than 30 seconds though, the defense has a chance to recover.

Pittsburgh goes on to score three goals on five shots to end the period. One came on a hokey five-on-three powerplay (the only time I will defend James Neal). The goal itself was far from hokey, as Evgeni Malkin ripped a laser from the point off the glove of Pekke Rinne. No qualm with the second goal, but the third goal is the type of goal that gets controllers thrown when playing NHL 17. A puck-luck own goal to end the period ends up playing a huge factor in the finish of this game.

Nashville wouldn’t roll over though as they locked down the Penguins for much of the next two periods. In fact, Nashville held Pittsburgh without a shot on goal for 37 minutes. That’s pretty impressive especially against the defending champions with at least two future Hall of Famers manning the top two lines. During the shot-less streak, the Predators staged a big comeback and were able to tie up the game late in the third period.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be for Nashville in Game 1. Jake Guentzel ended the offensive drought for Pittsburgh and broke the tie in the game. The Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) race is a tough one to figure out, but Guentzel is making a strong case at the moment. Pittsburgh would add an empty net goal to end the game, and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

All I will say for now is to get ready folks because we could be in for an epic battle for the Stanley Cup. Pittsburgh may have won the game, but Nashville looked like the more impressive team last night.

That’s it for me today. I’ll be back with “The Fourth Line” tomorrow to talk about the rest of the Stanley Cup Final. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.