Best Mariner Fights

[clarknova]

After last night's brouhaha between the Reds and Cardinals, I've been hearing a lot about the "best fights" in baseball history (Nolan Ryan's headlock skull punch on Robin Ventura has to be my favorite). Some people do not like fighting. I personally enjoy it, unless it's one of those bench clearing group hugs, or if someone is seriously injured. I think it makes the game interesting and adds intrigue to and creates rivalries that I think are good for baseball in general. I wanted to do a thread on the best fights, rumbles, and physical confrontations in for the M's.

My favorite all time Mariners beat down took place on July 11th, 1999 in an interleague game against the Dodgers.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/MARINER+HITS+COULD+HURT+--+INJURIES,+SUSPENSIONS+COULD+FOLLOW...-a064012226

From another article on the melee:


Triggered by an inside pitch from Mariner reliever Frankie Rodriguez to Mark Grudzielanek, the Dodgers and Mariners brawled for more than 15 minutes. The inside pitch came immediately after Trenidad Hubbard stroked a three-run double to put the Dodgers ahead 12-3. Rodriguez repeatedly uttered a four-letter word while challenging Grudzielanek to retaliate.

Everything appeared to be contained initially, with only some grabbing and gesturing. Then the Mariner relievers reached the mound and changed the mood. Jose Paniagua found someone's head with a sucker punch. Then players paired off - David Segui and Raul Mondesi, Butch Huskey and Angel Pena, Paniagua and Devon White, Jose Mesa and Dave Hansen, Jay Buhner and Pedro Borbon. Seattle reliever Damaso Marte pumped up the emotions with a sweeping right hand on the run to Hundley's head, and that led to the swell of players landing on Seattle outfielders Brian Hunter and Charles Gipson, both of whom were injured. "They kept cheap-shotting us," Dodger catcher Todd Hundley whined.

Umpires scurried from pile to pile while trying to separate players and coaches as fans booed and threw trash on the field. When it appeared the melee had finally ended, Seattle first baseman David Segui stirred things up again by seemingly challenging the entire Dodger dugout. When order was eventually restored, umpires ejected four Mariners and three Dodgers, including coach Rick Dempsey who was later suspended for 17 games.

The best part about the whole thing (and if anyone can locate a video, that would be awesome), was Jay Buhner. He was on the DL (for a bad back, if I remember correctly)- he came flying off the bench and basically body slammed Pedro Borbon and put him in a headlock.

There have been others. I remember a good one against the Yankees involving Darryl Strawberry, Richie Sexson throwing his helmet....
Anyone else have a favorite?

[TellItToTheDA]

This one sticks out to me more because it was one of my first Mariners game. At the time, I thought it was fantastic (still do). From May 21, 2000:

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20000521&slug=4022450


Before a 2-1 pitch from Ray right-hander Esteban Yan, Mariner leadoff hitter Mark McLemore called a timeout, granted by plate umpire Bill Welke, and backed from the left-handed batter's box. Yan completed his windup and directed a pitch - or so it seemed - at McLemore's legs.

Twenty minutes elapsed before another pitch was thrown, by which time McLemore and Mariner reliever Arthur Rhodes had been ejected and Yan - who was not thrown out - sufficiently ruffled to be lifted from the game.

"I threw the pitch to the ground," Yan insisted. "I don't want to hurt anybody on purpose."

McLemore saw it differently. He charged the mound immediately, threw his helmet at Yan - "I missed him," he said regretfully - and tackled the bigger player.

"He did what he wanted to do," McLemore said. "He chose to throw the ball at me, so I chose to do what I did."

Said Mariner Manager Lou Piniella, "It seemed to me that he threw the ball at the hitter."

Mariner shortstop Alex Rodriguez added, "For (Yan) to go out and try to end somebody's career when somebody's not been looking, there's no room for that kind of crap in the game of baseball."

Consensus in the Tampa Bay clubhouse was that the Mariners had stepped out of the batter's box on Yan previously and that he might have risked injury by not throwing the ball.

"I didn't want to stop and hurt my shoulder," Yan said. "I threw it soft - 81 miles per hour."

McLemore said the ball didn't hit him. Nor did anything seriously physical happen in the melee that followed. Among the peacemakers in the middle were two of the larger players, the Rays' Jose Canseco and the Mariners' Jay Buhner.

Rhodes said he was pushed from behind by Canseco as he tried to mediate for McLemore and Yan, a former teammate. Canseco conceded Rhodes might have been one of his victims as he tried to get to the core of the mess.

"It was Canseco," said a bitter Rhodes. "If you can't push me in front of my face, don't push me. It wasn't no accident. I'm not going to take that."

McLemore was eventually subdued by Mariner hitting coach Gerald Perry, while Rhodes menaced on the periphery of the gathering. First-base umpire Bruce Froemming said he ejected Rhodes for "an obscene remark made to me. I told him to knock it off, and that's when he made his remark."

Said Rhodes, "At first, he (Froemming) said something to me. If he doesn't remember what he said, that's his problem."

Froemming confirmed that Yan was not ejected. So the Mariners, with two players tossed, will likely be seen as the instigators when the matter is reviewed by Frank Robinson of the commissioner's office, who has been increasingly strict in handing out penalties.

"I don't care," McLemore said.

"It doesn't bother me," Rhodes said. "I've been playing this game almost 10 years, and it's the first time I've ever gotten kicked out of a game."

Larry Rothschild, the Tampa Bay manager, said McLemore was "probably going after the wrong guy" in Yan. And Froemming made it clear he didn't hold the Ray pitcher accountable.

"He was into his windup," Froemming said. "There was no intention whatsoever to hit him."

Even when the field had cleared, Froemming had to retreat to the Mariner video room to watch the McLemore at-bat for verification that the count on him was 2-1, after Rothschild contended it was 1-1.

"I told 'em it was 2-1," Piniella said, tongue in cheek, "but they didn't believe me."

[JosephC]

After last night's brouhaha between the Reds and Cardinals, I've been hearing a lot about the "best fights" in baseball history (Nolan Ryan's headlock skull punch on Robin Ventura has to be my favorite). Some people do not like fighting. I personally enjoy it, unless it's one of those bench clearing group hugs, or if someone is seriously injured. I think it makes the game interesting and adds intrigue to and creates rivalries that I think are good for baseball in general. I wanted to do a thread on the best fights, rumbles, and physical confrontations in for the M's.

My favorite all time Mariners beat down took place on July 11th, 1999 in an interleague game against the Dodgers.

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/MARINER+HITS+COULD+HURT+--+INJURIES,+SUSPENSIONS+COULD+FOLLOW...-a064012226

From another article on the melee:

The best part about the whole thing (and if anyone can locate a video, that would be awesome), was Jay Buhner. He was on the DL (for a bad back, if I remember correctly)- he came flying off the bench and basically body slammed Pedro Borbon and put him in a headlock.

There have been others. I remember a good one against the Yankees involving Darryl Strawberry, Richie Sexson throwing his helmet....
Anyone else have a favorite?

I don't see a video yet, but there are pictures...
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9902/seattlefight.jpg

Even though it's not a brawl, this was one of my favorite moments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZe1hDIEHJM

[clarknova]

LOL! @pic - So many still pics of baseball fights look like gay sports porn.

@DA- That was a great one, I had totally forgotten about that one. I love how guys are always talking about how getting hit by pitches endangers their career but fistfighting... Yeah, that doesn't ever result in injury. I would LOVE to see a McLemore/Canseco cage fight.

[TellItToTheDA]

@DA- That was a great one, I had totally forgotten about that one. I love how guys are always talking about how getting hit by pitches endangers their career but fistfighting... Yeah, that doesn't ever result in injury. I would LOVE to a McLemore/Canseco cage fight.

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/51548083.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=FE1CE9934D1C2A8C9378E24DF88D95D999AE00B8160DB9A9 52A88CD3072FAAFD

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/51548088.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=FE1CE9934D1C2A8C315E4BC3A7D82F6899AE00B8160DB9A9 3EE97361FB9C98BD

[clarknova]

This is what happens when Ichiro punches you in the face:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhEvSsaVsY8&feature=related