It’s time for Major League Baseball to do something about the on-field brawls. Saturday night’s fight between Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox and José Ramírez of the Cleveland Guardians was an embarrassment to the sport. Commissioner Rob Manfred needs to come down hard on both players, both managers, and both teams. This nonsense needs to stop.

As if the fight between Anderson and Ramírez wasn’t bad enough, as always happens during these dustups, players from both benches and both bullpens ran out onto the field to strut around like a bunch of banty roosters, with each player hoping someone else would “hold them back.” When the dust finally settled, plate umpire Mark Wegner ejected both Anderson and Ramírez; Cleveland manager Terry Francona, third base coach Mike Sarbaugh, and relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase; and Chicago manager Pedro Grifol. That was a good start, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

I never have understood why MLB allows players to leave the bench and the bullpens without any sort of penalty. The NFL and NBA eject and suspend players for leaving the bench to join a scrum. For goodness sake, even the NHL that seldom goes a game without a fight, suspends players for leaving the bench to join in one. It’s time for MLB to get with the program.

In the NBA, Rule No. 12: Fouls and Penalties states, in part: “During an altercation, all players not participating in the game must remain in the immediate vicinity of their bench. Violators will be subject to suspension, without pay, for a minimum of one game and fined up to $50,000.” The rule even has provisions for how to handle multiple ejections and how to stagger suspensions in the event that enough players leave the bench that suspending them all at the same time would leave a team without an adequate number of players for the next game.

The NBA rule seems harsh, but it leaves no room for doubt that the league will deal with such foolishness seriously. Fights usually escalate in proportion to the number of people involved, so it’s important to do whatever it takes to keep players from leaving the bench. Plus, the fewer players there are on the field, the easier it is for the officials to restore order.

Another obstacle to ending these ridiculous fracases is the coverage they receive in the media. Just two days ago, Twitter (or whatever they’re calling it this week) was full of posts about the 30-year anniversary of the infamous fight between Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura. Since everything Ryan ever did was overly glorified, fans and broadcasters were eating it up. Most of the coverage I saw of the Anderson-Ramírez ruckus light-heartedly talked about Ramírez decking Anderson; nowhere did I see anyone calling for any proposals to prevent these types of incidents.

At a minimum, every player who leaves the bench or the bullpen during a fight should face immediate ejection and subsequent suspension. Teams then may have to finish the game with their current pitcher. If a team’s current pitcher is involved (as is frequently the case) and gets ejected along with all the relievers, then his team would have to finish the game with either a starting pitcher who remained on the bench or a position player. If the ejections result in a team not having enough players to continue, then they would have to forfeit the game.

I’m not sure any of these measures would lead to the elimination of bench-clearing melees, but what MLB currently does about them–virtually nothing–encourages the continuation of the insanity.