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NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball has suspended four players involved in last Sundays brawl between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee catcher Martin Maldonado was suspended five games while outfielder Carlos Gomez was suspended three games. Pittsburgh outfielder Travis Snider received a two-game penalty, with catcher Russell Martin also missing one game. Maldonado began his suspension with Tuesdays game against the San Diego Padres. Gomez decided to appeal and was in his usual leadoff position. Manager Ron Roenicke said he thought a decision could take a couple weeks. "Im appealing because its not fair and Im not the one that started the fight and Im not the one that started throwing punches first," Gomez said Tuesday in the dugout. "Ill appeal it and wait for the result." Gomez said he did not throw the first punch during the fracas, and that umpires know "who started everything." Gomez would be biggest loss among the four players disciplined. The surprising Brewers entered Tuesday with the best record in baseball at 15-5, four games up on the St. Louis Cardinals. The Gold Glove-winning centre fielder is hitting .313 with five homers and 12 RBIs after being moved to the leadoff position this season. Snider and Martin plan to appeal the suspension and were penciled into the lineup for Tuesday nights game against Cincinnati. Martin said he was surprised at being disciplined. Martin has a scheduled off day on Thursday in favour of backup Chris Stewart. Its possible he could sit out then to serve the suspension. Benches cleared after Gomez and Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole exchanged words after Gomezs triple in the third inning. Snider came onto the field and tackled Gomez, getting a minor assist from Martin in the process. Snider was then punched in the face by Maldonado, receiving a small gash under his left eye. Roenicke and general manager Doug Melvin were unhappy with the suspensions, and Roenicke said he didnt think it was fair. "No, I dont. The guy who started it all got nothing, and I dont understand that," Roenicke said. "I know theyre tough decisions ... Theyve got precedent, theyve got a lot of things that go into this, but I dont think its fair." Maldonados suspension leaves utilityman Elian Herrera, who was just called up last week, as the backup to starting catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Justin Layne Jersey . The ongoing funk on penalty kill and an unusually quiet night on home ice for the power play divided the Leafs from the Bruins at the ACC in a rare Sunday night affair. Garrett Brumfield Jersey . People familiar with the case told The Associated Press on Friday that arbitrator Fredric Horowitz could issue his decision this weekend. http://www.cheapsteelersjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=authentic-merril-hoge-jersey . Second-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States made lighter work of her day as she beat 2009 champion and Swiss wild card Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-3. Two seeds fell: No. 4 Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium lost to Katarzyna Piter of Poland 6-4, 6-2, and No. Casey Sayles Jersey .C. - Canadian ice dancing, it seems, is in good hands. Jordan Berry Jersey . The 19-year-old from Westmount, Que., was edged 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-3 by third-seeded Alize Cornet of France. Cornet broke Bouchard twice in the last set and saved six break points in the three-hour match.Game Speed! We often hear that term. What is it and why is it different? Coaches, for all of time, have asked their respective players and teams to practice fast. Why? Well they are trying to mimic the tempo and flow of an actual game and/or contest. No matter the sport, when the lights go on and the bullets are flying for real, things change and game speed is different than practice. My entire career, every time I took to the practice field, I busted my tail to simulate actual game speed. This stems from growing up in Texas. Not to say that Texas has cornered the market on practicing fast, but I was fortunate to have some unbelievably intense and quality coaches in my earlier football days in Dallas. Every drill was the same for me, whether it be taking drops with the other quarterbacks, working with the big boys and running backs during inside run, skelly or team period. The mindset was to push to get better, dont waste a rep, prove yourself and practice fast. Why? All in hopes of making the actual game slow down. Pushing yourself in these situations is only part of the challenge. Getting your teammates to go 100 per cent all the time to help duplicate actual game speed is critical. Executing at game speed during practice is a total commitment to excellence, by everyone. This mindset has to be shared not only by your offensive teammates but equally important, the "Look Team". The Look Team is comprised mostly of back-up defensive players, developmental squad members and in some cases, defensive starters. Having the Look Team dialed in and flying around giving you and your teammates exact replication of the anticipated defensive fronts, stunts and coverages, is paramount. If not, you are just fooling yourself and wasting time, which is otherwise known as going through the motions! When you have not been under the lights executing at game speed for a period of time your tempo, rhythm and timing are altered drastically. This period of time away for game action does not have to be very long before the gap starts to develop and execution wanes. Im talking a week or two and BAM, you can be behind...this is very frustrating. Now theres also something else, something very big you have to take into account. Athletes who are away from game action for any length of time are typically recovering from some type of injury. When this happens, athletes have to get over the mental hurdle of being injury free. Believe me, this is a beast in and of itself! When overcoming an injury, no matter how hard you work in practice to try and convince yourself that all is good, its in the real game conditions when the truth is discovered. Why is this? Well in todays game with contact during practice being monitored and certainly limited on so many fronts, actual game conditions from this standpoint are difficult to duplicate. Once back into the tthe fray and you are convinced mentally that you are one hundred percent, now you can concentrate on dealing with the tempo, rhythm and timing of game speed.dddddddddddd We see many examples of this every week in sport. On Monday Night Football this week, we saw the likes of Johnny "Football" Manziel adapting to game speed at a completely different level. It almost looked like he had never played the game before. His timing was horrendous and thats game speed coming into play, rearing its completely different, sometimes ugly head, or in Johnnys case, finger. Take for instance 2011 CFL Most Outstanding Player Travis Lulay in his three brief appearances in this past weeks game versus the Argos. Travis looked like he was having a few problems adjusting to game speed, and thats putting it nicely! Perfect example of a player first having to overcome the mental hurdle of injury and secondly trying to adjust to the speed of the game. We know Lulay can do it, as hes done it before. With Manziel, thats a different story! Ill give you an example of all this coming together. When there is an all out focus coupled with a consistent effort and will to prepare to win, good things will happen. Theres nothing like being on top of your game, knowing that you have put in the time and have done everything humanely possible to have success when the lights go on. All that preparation, video study, conditioning, rehab, practicing at full speed, effort and training does pay off. Theres stepping into the huddle with your teammates, looking them in the eye and confidently calling a play anticipating a certain defensive front, stunt and coverage. Telling them this is money, a touchdown if we all do our jobs. After a few coaching points and reminders to the guys, you break the huddle and cruise up to the line of scrimmage. Watch the defence react to your formation, connect the dots and already know, BANG, you got em! Your guys go into motion, which gives you even more indicators that the right play is called and now its just a matter of going through your cadence, taking the snap, looking a defender off opening up more room for your target and delivering a strike that puts six points on the board! Thats what its all about! Being in control and executing at the highest level. Ex-players often say that they miss the guys in the locker room the most after they retire, thats definitely part of it, but for me its also the precise execution with those same guys on the field, due to all the hard work and sacrifices made together. Thats what I miss the most! If Ive said it once, Ive said it a hundred times. You have to play the game to learn the game and so much of this is adjusting to the speed of the game at all levels. Now go out there and earn that opportunity to play by practicing fast, and make sure its at game speed! Ready Break!!!