Ireland’s fiery contribution to baseball

Joey Barton told his Twitter followers on Sunday that after he got sent off against Man City, he tried and failed to get “one of theirs” to accompany him.

This was his attempt to take one for the team by taking one from the other team. He even claimed he didn’t lose the head in the heat of battle. Instead, this was his way of salvaging some balance against the league champions elect in the white heat of a fight for survival during an era of football when relegation from the gilded Premier League could lead to Portsmouth-esque ruination.

But it didn’t quite work out that way and it should be noted that it fell far short of the high water mark for professional sports violence with exponential collateral damage as by-product.