Two Guys Sports
Bruce BostwickRays - Red Sox Clear Benches for Brawl
June 6th 2008 06:32
James Shields swings and misses at Coco Crisp.
Everyone knew it was coming after last night’s game on ESPN. In the eighth inning the Red Sox were up by a score of 5-1 when outfielder Coco Crisp slid into second base rather late. It was a dangerous and stupid slide. Tampa Bay manager Joe Madden was furious and complained to the umps, later he would say that Crisp intentionally tried to hurt someone with the slide. Some could make the argument that what Madden said simply wasn’t the case. Well they could if they did not see Crisp’s post-game comments. Crisp claims that he did the slide the way he did in retaliation because he felt shortstop Jason Bartlett blocked second base with his leg as Crisp slid in, and said he injured his thumb on the play. So, he obviously did do it intentionally, note he was not thrown out of the game.
In Crisp’s first at-bat tonight in the second inning Rays starter James Shields hit him with a pitch in his hip. Crisp charged the mound and was met with a flying fist from Shields. Crisp ducked the punch and then landed one of his own to the side of Shields’s head. By this point both dugouts were emptying and in an unusual situation two piles started, one with Crisp in the middle, the other with Shields in the middle. After it was all sorted out Crisp, Shields, and Rays DH Jonny Gomes were all ejected. Gomes came from Tampa Bay’s dugout and got a few punches in on Crisp while he was on the ground.
This will certainly lead to some suspensions, probably a few games for each and possibly even a game or two for Rays manager Madden who they will say gave the “OK” for Shields to do it. Gomes might end up missing the same or more games than Shields, since Crisp was on the ground when he connected with his blows. Sadly, Crisp probably won’t get any more games than Shields. He admitted to sliding in hard to second in retaliation to what seemed to be a play where Bartlett did nothing wrong. If Crisp did hurt his thumb it didn't seem to bother him after it happened, but his slide could have easily put Rays' second baseball Akinori Iwamura out for at least a couple games if not longer. I feel Crisp should have to sit out at least two more games than the others involved. Especially after his post-game comments. I wish ESPN currently had the clip of these comments for me to show you. He basically called the Rays players that were hitting him out saying how they weren't sure they wanted to hit him because they weren't hitting him hard. He went on to say he doesn't know if it is over yet, but for now he thinks it's even.
Pitchers throwing at hitters is a part of the game, bench clearing brawls are sometimes part of the game. The way that Shields did it will simply leave a nice big bruise on his thigh and hip. He wasn't throwing at his head, he was just throwing with a purpose. What Crisp was doing Wednesday night was also sliding with a purpose. The difference is, his purpose was to hurt someone because he felt he was hurt. I am sure the league won't punish him enough for it unfortunately.
We are adding the link to the brawl for you to see, courtesy of ESPN
Click here to watch video of the brawl between Boston and Tampa Bay
You will notice at the end of this clip there was another altercation in the Red Sox dugout. This one however involved two Sox players, Kevin Youkilis and Manny Ramirez. After the game Boston manager tried to play down their fight by blaming it on testosterone and saying it is over now. I also wish ESPN had the clip from Sportscenter rather than Baseball Tonight for me to show you. In the Sportscenter clip you can see Manny and Youkilis standing close with some talking going on, then suddenly Manny swung and hit Youk in the head with a backhand swing.
Considering these two teams will probably be fighting for first place in the A.L. East all year their future meetings might get wild and very interesting.
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