Canada coach Larry Walker tries to restrain Mexico's Alfredo Aceves on Saturday. (Getty Images)

PHOENIX – The theater of the absurd unfolded, of all places, on a baseball diamond. It is a big stage, perfect for the players to dance and act and, in this case, throw a few punches. To look back at the first must-see moment of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and maybe the first legitimately classic event of the tournament's short history, is to revel in how a game, and emotion, and testosterone can turn conflagrant in a hurry. And, of course, what happens when you stare into Satan's eyes.

The devil was all over Chase Field on Saturday as the WBC entries from Canada and Mexico tangled – figuratively for eight innings, then literally for five heated and scary minutes during a brawl that started because of a breach in baseball etiquette. The game ended with the baseball-viewing world captivated.

Just about everybody loves a good basebrawl, and this was more than good. It was Canadian catcher Chris Robinson laying a bunt single down the third-base line with a 9-3 lead because

Mexico's Eduardo Arredondo (R) fights with Canada's Jay Johnson on Saturday at Chase Field. (Getty Images)

PHOENIX – A massive brawl between Canada and Mexico broke out in the ninth inning of their World Baseball Classic game Saturday afternoon after Canada's bunt for a hit with a six-run lead prompted a retaliatory hit-by-pitch.

Dozens of punches were thrown, players were strewn about the ground at Chase Field and umpires needed nearly five minutes to separate the teams.

In the brawl's immediate aftermath, a fan threw a loaded plastic bottle which struck Canada pitching coach Denis Boucher. Shortstop Cale Iorg picked it up and whipped it back into the stands. Later, after the game had resumed, a fan threw a foul ball back onto the field and nearly hit Canada first-base coach Larry Walker.

[Slideshow: Mexico-Canada brawl at WBC]

Canada won 10-3, eliminating Mexico (1-2) from the tournament. No injuries were reported from both sides.

"You can't hurt us Canadians," said manager Ernie Whitt.

There were no signs of rancor until Canada catcher Chris Robinson bunted

U.S. starter R.A. Dickey gave up four runs in the first three innings against Mexico. (Getty Images)

PHOENIX – As grim and grisly as the first two versions of the World Baseball Classic turned out for the United States, the possibility now exists for 2013 to set an almost-unbeatable level of futility: Team USA may well be done after its second game. Such ugliness would take a little bit of help and a little more ineptitude, though after watching Mexico coast to a 5-2 victory over the Americans in front of a raucous Chase Field on Friday night, a sobering truth resonated: In WBC games, the country that invented the sport has lost more than it has won.

It's true. Three WBCs, 15 games, seven victories, eight losses. And few as costly as Friday night's. The Americans buried themselves under an early deficit and were suffocated by bad plate discipline, runners stranded and subpar starting pitching. And by the end of the night, amid "Olé" chants from Mexican fans still sponging in a delicious win, Team USA, perpetual favorite and historic underachiever, found itself staring at WBC

The closest thing to perfection in a sports world where it does not exist is Mariano Rivera's cut fastball. For the last 17 years, he has thrown that pitch, and only that pitch really, to all 5,053 batters he has faced during the regular and postseasons. Upward of 20,000 cutters. The same pitch every time. And after nearly two decades of trying, hitters still have no idea what to do with it.

Rivera plans on announcing Saturday that he will retire following the 2013 season, and with him not only will he take the most saves in history, a fistful of World Series rings and a spot alongside Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle and Jeter in the New York Yankees' most exclusive pantheon, he can say, with no exaggeration, that he was better at what he did than anybody in baseball ever was at their job. Mariano Rivera reportedly is calling it a career after the 2013 season. (Reuters)

His cutter was superior to Nolan Ryan's fastball, Sandy Koufax's curveball, Steve Carlton's slider, Roger Clemens' splitter, Pedro Martinez's changeup and every other pitch. He refined it more than

Team Mexico's first game in the World Baseball Classic is Thursday against Italy. (Getty Images)

GLENDALE, Ariz. – A team full of Mexican citizens and Mexican-Americans played a baseball game here Wednesday. This would be of little note in 49 other states. In Arizona, where immigration has been politicized to the point of dystopian fiction, this was a recipe for jokes about how many of the team's players were asked for their papers on the way to the stadium. It might've been funny if not for the fact that a police officer really had stopped one.

"I actually got pulled over today on the way to the field," said Marco Estrada, a Milwaukee Brewers pitcher who has lived in the United States for 24 years, whose wife and children are American citizens and who is representing Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. At a stop sign, he said he looked both ways and thought he stopped. A police officer disagreed. At least Estrada was spared the indignity of being asked for documentation.

Estrada was lucky.

"I've been pulled over numerous times, driving a nice car," said

MLB executive VP Joe Torre says MLB is looking into expanding instant replay. (AP)GLENDALE, Ariz. – More instant replay is coming to baseball in 2014. Joe Torre said as much Tuesday afternoon, and considering Torre started off as one of the hard-liners on Major League Baseball's special committee that considers such rules changes, this at very least represents progress and at best gives hope the sport will embrace widespread replay.

Now comes the difficult part: getting it right.

This will not be easy. It takes foresight and courage to upend conventions long ingrained in baseball. Asking a committee with an average age of 65.6 to embrace change rooted in technology is begging for half-measures. That cannot happen. If baseball wants to make the right and full transition, it must swallow the idea that full replay is inevitable, embrace that reality and market it as an antiquated game's attempt at progressiveness.

First, and most important, is accepting the impetus behind replay. Get. The. Call. Right. Do everything you humanly can to get it right. Even

Prince Fielder has previously said he won't play in the World Baseball Classic. (Getty Images)

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Sometime Tuesday night, Prince Fielder's phone should ring. On the other end should be Joe Torre and Joe Garagiola Jr., the manager and GM of Team USA's entry into the World Baseball Classic. And the first word out of their mouths should sound something like this:

Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

Unbecoming though it would be of Torre and Garagiola to beg, Team USA needs a left-handed-hitting first baseman after Mark Teixeira strained a tendon in his right forearm Tuesday, sending him back to New York and out of the WBC for good. And there is no better left-handed-hitting first baseman in the world, let alone this country, than Prince Fielder.

Look, this is a long shot. There is a reason most of the best players from the United States aren't here: The WBC, for all of its great qualities, is sort of a pain in the ass for players. If Team USA makes the finals in San Francisco, players will essentially have been on a 20-day road trip. Between

Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips is proud to wear the red, white and blue. (AP Photo)

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The idea of the World Baseball Classic is so much greater than the actuality of the World Baseball Classic. It should be a tournament to which the game's best players crave an invitation, like the World Cup. It is a tournament to which far too many of the game's best players cringe at an invitation, like the NIT.

The criticisms of the WBC are sound. The timing, at the beginning of spring training, is awful. It creates a faux version of baseball in which starting pitchers can throw only a certain amount of pitches. The media distribution – every game is on MLB Network – is paltry and invites the question of whether the tournament is there to grow baseball internationally or ratings domestically. And more than anything is the tepid response in the United States, something officials believe would disappear were Team USA not to bomb out like it did in the first two WBCs.

Amid such sobering truths, the U.S. squad met here Monday for the first time, wearing red