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Did somone say brawl?

18 July 2005
After the altercations in yesterday's Royals-Tigers game, it really made me ponder some questions that should be addressed.

a) What are teams like that fighting for? Worst place in their division?
I personally didn't care since I'm not a fan of either team (nor division, nor league for that matter), but it is always cool to see a brawl. It's always good to stand up for your team, but at what expense? It's not like these guys are chasing a pennant or anything. The only thing they have to play for, is simply just to play. Now with suspensions, there goes that. But it was very cool though....

b) Is there any better all-time brawler than Kyle Farnsworth?
The man is amazing. He has craftfully skilled an art of picking a guy up and slamming him to the ground. He's got that John Rocker build and sprint from the bullpen... except he's sprinting for different reasons. The takedown was amazing yesterday, but nothing compared to what he did to Paul Wilson when he was with the Cubs! Paul Wilson was a #1 draft choice for crying out loud!

kyle farnsworth reds brawlkyle farnsworth kansas city brawl

c) What are the greatest baseball brawls of all-time?
Here's a rundown of the top three brawls that I can come up with:

1) Red Sox vs. Yankees (October 11, 2003)
Instant Classic. What makes this one even better is everything that happened during and after the brawl. Game 3 of the American League Championship between the greatest rivalry in all of baseball. This one had two different eruptions in it. First was when Pedro hit Karim Garcia with first base open. Both benches started to clear, but stayed where they were, and Pedro taunted Jorge Posada in the Yankee dugout. Things turned worse later in the game when Roger Clemens threw some high heat at Manny Ramirez. Both benches clear, and Pedro tosses 72 year old (then) bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground by his bald head. After the game, we get the greatest player audio clip in recent times wtih Pedro saying, "I'm Pedro Martinez. Who's Karim Garcia?"

pedro martinez yankees red sox brawlpedro martinez don zimmer brawl

b) Rangers vs. White Sox (August 4, 1993)
This one is great because you have an old-timer-hall-of-famer kicking the crap out of a young guy on the field. Nolan Ryan threw one of his acclaimed 100 mph fastballs and hit Robin Ventura. Ventura charged the mound while "the great one" side-stepped him, got him in a head lock, and began to pummel the young gun who was half of his age (23 while Ryan was 46).

nolan ryan brawl

3) Braves vs. Padres (August 12, 1984)
So what if I'm not old enough to remember when this happened? That's what ESPN Classic is for! I've seen this brawl on TV at least on 3 different occasions. This seemed more like a boxing match between the two teams with the occasional baseball game mixed in between. It started with the very first batter of the game getting hit by the very first pitch. Retaliation was in the 2nd inning (followed by the first brawl). Brawls continued in the 5th, 8th and 9th innings of the ball game. When the blood was finally cleaned up, there were 14 ejections (including managers Joe Torre and Dick Williams). Oh yeah, 5 fans were also arrested for interfering with all of the fighting on the field! Then Braves manager Joe Torre had a great quote for what had transcended:

"Dick Williams is an idiot. It was obvious he was the cause of the whole thing. Precipitating a thing like that was inexcusable. It was stupid of them, period, to take four shots at (Pascual) Perez. It was gutless. It stinks. It was Hitler-like action. I think he (Williams) should be suspended for the rest of the year."

Honorable Mentions:
-George Brett charging after the pine tar incident.
-Indians vs. Brewers brawl after Albert Belle threw his elbow at Fernando Vina.