I've come to the conclusion that as things happen to us as humans there's two natural events that happen in the wake of whatever it was: the reaction and the action.

The reaction is that initial burst of emotion, rational or irrational. It's natural and can't be helped. The action is the part that happens after we calm ourselves down, think about what just happened, and then eradicate the irrational parts and then respond.

Yeah, I'm thinking the Washington Nationals ignored that last part with the firing of Rob Dibble.

For those of you who missed it, the former CIncinnati Reds reliever was fired as a color analyst for criticizing the Chosen One, a.k.a. Stephen Strasburg.

Now whether you agree with him or not, one thing cannot be ignored: he didn't really say anything over the top insulting or degrading. Yes, he jumped the gun. He made those comments before test revealed that indeed Strasburg would need Tommy John surgery. However firing the guy is a complete over-reaction.

Dibble didn't criticize the organization for doing what it did. He simply felt that athletes today would rather sit than play through a little pain. He had no idea how bad the injury really was. That fact alone should have warranted some kind of disclaimer on his comments, if not a total delay.

However the Nationals firing him puts them at the top of my list of gutless franchises. Criticize the face of the franchise? We can't have that around here, can we? Here's the door...

It's ludicrous. Here's my top five gutless franchises:

1.) Washington Nationals
2.) Cincinnati Bengals- how many legal castoffs are allowed on one roster?
3.) Minnesota Vikings- catering to Brett Favre makes me nauseaus
4.) Any team that pays Manny Ramirez
5.) New York Knicks- for even entertaining the idea of Isiah Thomas coming back to the organization

The good news is that now maybe Dibble and Tim McCarver will work a Mets-Nationals game and rip everybody apart. Now that would be must-see-TV.