Tempers flared and frustration boiled over during the Brewers' 6-3 loss to the last-place Reds Monday night in Cincinnati.

But, that's enough about my living room ... Let's talk about what happened between Prince Fielder and Manny Parra in the visitor's dugout.

If you watched the game, you may have seen a frustrated Fielder shove Parra twice -- hard -- on the Brewers bench after the sixth inning.

But, you had to look quickly.

The broadcast crew from FSN Wisconsin seemed to do everything in its power to downplay the incident, which vaulted an otherwise humdrum loss into the opening montage of ESPN's "SportsCenter."

In fact, "SportsCenter" paid more attention to the event than the local crew did, which is a glaring indictment of the way in which it was handled.

Before we proceed, two important disclaimers are in order:

Disclaimer No. 1: I happen to know, like and respect many of the members of the FSN Wisconsin team that I've met over the years; the directors, producers and announcers who travel with the team and especially the camera guys and technicians I regularly chat with in the media dining room before home games at Miller Park.

It's impossible not to like Brian Anderson, Bill Schroeder, Trenni Kusnierek, Craig Coshun, Davey Nelson and the rest of their gang. They are fine people. They work hard. They do a very good job making the games entertaining night in and night out.

However, they completely dropped the ball on this one. And, they weren't alone in that regard, which brings us to...

Disclaimer No. 2: Part of the frustration I experienced Monday night was my own damn fault. Because I host a sports talk radio show and write about many topics here at OnMilwaukee.com, I felt a certain sense of duty to watch what I thought was going to be an important Packers press conference at 8:15 p.m.

Though my TV has a both a DVR and a picture-in-picture feature, I opted to leave the Brewers-Reds game and surf around the various channels to see when Packers coach Mike McCarthy would announce his intentions with a certain quarterback who has been in the news lately.

I flipped from Channel 12 to ESPN News to Fox 6 to Channel 4 and then back to ESPN News and didn't see anything from Green Bay.

In the midst of this, my cell phone rang. It was my friend, Craig, and he had a simple question.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said. "McCarthy hasn't come out yet."

"No," he said. "What happened in the Brewers game? Prince Fielder just went after Manny Parra in the dugout. I thought you'd know what happened."

Stunned by the news, I immediately flipped back to FSN Wisconsin and waited for a replay of the incident.

I waited ... and waited ... and waited ... and waited ...

You get the idea.

Although Anderson and Schroeder referred to the incident in passing throughout the final two innings, there was no replay. "Well," I thought, "They'll show it the next Prince comes to the plate..."

Wrong again.

Coming out of a commercial, the FSN crew tossed to Coshun and Jeff Cirillo, the hosts of the pre- and post-game shows, for a "Game Recap."

Surely, I thought, I'll see the video now. And maybe Cirillo will talk about how emotions get the better of players in trying times.

Again, the incident was ignored. Coshun and Cirillo talked about Bronson Arroyo instead.

As the final outs played out, I watched in amazement as the story of the night, the one I was certain was going to be the No. 1 topic among Brewers fans at water coolers (and on certain radio shows), was ignored.

It was journalistic malpractice, unfolding before my eyes. I got the feeling that FSN Wisconsin was trying to protect the Brewers' image by downplaying the dugout drama. A decade ago, that approach would have been understandable, but still not excusable. In this era of DVRs, YouTube and instant message board talkbacks, the idea that ignoring an unflattering event can somehow diminish its impact is sheer folly.

What happened on the broadcast Monday night was as bad, though directly the opposite, of a TV crew ignoring an unfolding no-hitter for fear of "jinxing" the local team's pitcher.

At one point, Anderson made reference to the incident last season -- almost a year ago to the day, in fact -- when Brewers manager Ned Yost and Johnny Estrada got into a dugout dustup in front of the TV cameras.

"Well, it would be nice to see a highlight of that incident," I thought.

Then I remembered THAT I HADN'T SEEN THE FIELDER-PARRA REPLAY YET!"

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