Nyjer Morgan turned Wednesday night's Nationals-Marlins game into a cage fight when he charged the mound. We'll put in a disclaimer right here that of course we disdain violence on the field of play, but man, the ensuing brawl was indeed worthy of the repeat airings it has been getting all day long on ESPN News.

Given that Morgan is listed, perhaps generously, as 6-foot and 175 pounds, charging 6-8 and 230-pound Chris Volstad perhaps wasn't in his best interests. So what's the explanation for such behavior?

Blame it on hockey, a sport that's constant witness to brawls like this one. Bob Herpen, hockey editor at Phanatic magazine, explains Morgan's hockey roots, writing:

A young Morgan was taken with the sport after watching the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary, and pestered his parents to play the game until he was able to snag a tryout with the British Columbia Hockey League's Vernon Vipers as a 16-year-old. He didn't make the team, but bounced around several other clubs in the low Canadian minors until hooking on with the Regina Pats of the famed Western Canadian Hockey League in 1999. Even now, the WCHL carries with it a reputation of making the tough players tougher and weeding out the rest. Morgan was no exception. He not only had to fight to keep his spot on the team, but also had to fend off cuture shock and prejudice; after all, he was (an African-American) trying to make his way in a sport that is predominantly Caucasian, in a league that is primarily Canadian, and in Regina, Saskatchewan -- a bastion of lily-whiteness in the most lily-white of Canadian regions: the Prairies.

Adds Herpen, perhaps most tellingly: