Be Like Tike

Sunday, June 24th, 2007 by Matt Felser

Top 5 Baseball Fights

[Ed. This page is a bit of a mess. Many of the videos here have been moved or deleted. Instead of continually updating it, I will try to put out a new post ASAP. 1/6/08]

You just can’t have enough of these top however-many posts.

Who doesn’t like an old-fashioned baseball throwdown? You’ve got the stereotypically wimpiest athletes charging at each other. To top it all off, these guys wield some brutal weapons. If a batter can use their bat to hit a ball 450 feet, how far can they hit someone’s skull? And I’d think twice before charging at someone who could hit me between the eyes with an object traveling at 95 mph. So, if you are ready, make the jump to see the winners, including two very rare videos.

Nolan Ryan v. Robin Ventura Loading...
This one is a classic, with a hall-of-fame hurler putting the all-star third baseman in a headlock and beating him relentlessly. I don’t think there are many pitchers today who would stand up against a charging batter.
Izzy Alcantara v. Jeremy Salazar
Wow. The ball just barely grazed Israel “Izzy” Alcantara and he blows a fuse, kicking Salazar in the face. After going off on the catcher, Alcantara still felt the need to charge the mound. I guess he thought that he would be suspended anyways, so he might as well go the whole nine yards.
Wei Chuan Dragons v. Chinatrust Whales
[coolplayer]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2Jl4bPRMI[coolplayer]
Sparked by a collision at the plate, these Taiwanese ballclubs started trading blows. They have more bad blood between them than the Yankees and Red Sox. You won’t find two bench-clearing brawls in a single game at Fenway any time soon.
Pedro Martinez v. Don Zimmer

There’s something about Pedro Martinez taking down a 72-year-old man that just makes my day. Grabbing him by his very bald head only sweetens the deal. Pedro later argued that Zimmer was “bullrushing” him, and that the maneuver was in self-defense. You don’t want to know what I had to do to find this video. MLB tried its hardest to make this incident disappear.
Randall Simon v. Sausage

This is another video that I had to scour the internet for, but it was well worth it. Randall Simon’s career will be defined by one boneheaded move that resulted in criminal charges. Who hits an anthropomorphic sausage with their bat? Pirates fans would have been outraged if one of their pierogies were felled by some Milwaukee Brewer.
Honorable Mention: Albert Belle v. Fernando VinaI searched near and far for this video, but it is nowhere to be found. MLB took the video off of YouTube, and the incident occurred in 1994, well before TiVo. However, if you happen to catch Best Damn Sports Show Period’s Top 50 Devastating Hits, it should weigh in at #13. Anyways, Vina fielded a ground ball and was about to tag out Belle, who was running to second base. Belle had different plans, and, with a stiff-arm that would make Bo Jackson proud, threw the much smaller Vina to the ground.