Wow, just heard about this. Looks like A-Rod got slapped around pretty good. ----------------------- BOSTON -- A bench-clearing brawl broke out between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox on Saturday after Bronson Arroyo hit New York's Alex Rodriguez with a pitch in the top of the third inning. Rodriguez stared down Arroyo as he started walking toward first. Catcher Jason Varitek, still wearing his mask, got between them as the AL MVP walked up the baseline and, after some jawing, pushed the Yankees star in the face. The dugouts and bullpens emptied. Varitek's realignment of A-Rod's face ignited the third-inning melee. Several scrums erupted, with Gabe Kapler battling Yankees starter Tanyon Sturtze, soon joined by Boston's Trot Nixon and David Ortiz. Sturtze was bleeding from the left ear. Varitek and Rodriguez were ejected from the game by plate umpire Bruce Froemming. Boston manager Terry Francona was ejected in the fifth inning after arguing a call by second base umpire Mike Winters, who ruled Johnny Damon was forced at second base on a throw by right fielder Gary Sheffield after second baseman Enrique Wilson dropped a popup. Sturtze pitched the bottom of the third with mud or blood on his shoulder, but he left after the inning with a bruised right pinky finger; precautionary X-rays were negative. The Red Sox are desperately in need of a spark as they chase New York, which led 3-0 at the time and began the day 9{ games ahead of Boston in the AL East. Boston has never come back from more than 10 games behind to win the division. The teams also brawled last fall at Fenway Park during Game 3 of the AL championship series, when Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez threw 72-year-old Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground. Zimmer, a former Boston manager who is now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, apologized the next day. In 1976, New York's Lou Piniella collided with Boston catcher Carlton Fisk at home plate in Yankee Stadium and came up swinging. In the ensuing fight, Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee was body-slammed and wound up with a broken collarbone. Rodriguez is proving to be a catalyst for the escalation of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. Boston had a tentative deal to acquire the third baseman from Texas in December. That fell through and the Yankees acquired him two months later. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner declined comment, spokesman Howard Rubenstein said. Rubenstein added that Steinbrenner may have something to say about the fight next week. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1845834
gabe kapler is known as a workout monster... so he's not good at baseball... but would be good in a brawl... that pitcher chose the wrong fight.
Good thing for Varitek, Bronson Arroyo would've been demolished. Then again, all the Yankee fighters like Strawberry, Nelson, Garcia, Zimm are gone.
The red sox are a dead team... Varitek started it on purpose. They needed it badly. No one on the sox showed any care when they lost last night. Except for Schilling, caught crying on the bench after the game. Whatever... they are still 8.5 game back!
even though the red sox did it out of frustration still love to see someone stick it to A-Rod and Company.
A-Rod should not have been tossed. If anything Arroyo and Veritek should have been tossed. How do you get hit by a pitch, not charge the mound, have the catcher come and hit you in the face, then finally retaliate, and that gets you thrown out of the game. It also sucks that Mariano blew the save. Oh well, the Sox are still dead as Dickens and fighting for a WC spot.
LMAO, you Yankee homer. First off: 1) As someone who follows baseball, Hydra, you should know by now that a pitcher that hits a batter HARDLY ever gets ejected when they hit someone for the first time in a game. It is only after the umpire had issued a warning to both sides, would an ejection have happened. 2) Varitek is doing what all catchers should do - when a guy starts mouthing and wolfing like A-Hole was doing, Varitek is just protecting his pitcher by getting in-between them. 3) As the replays show, A-Hole was clearly mouthing, "F*ck you" several times and then waved his hand at Varitek as a way of saying "Come on tough guy." But in your mind, you think he should have NOT been ejected. It doesn't really matter anyway because the Sox have about zero chance of winning the division; however, the wildcard is there's for the taking. They just need to keep approaching every game with a sense of urgency like they did yesterday. Don't worry about the other teams, just focus on winning games one day at a time. But I couldn't help but chuckle that they won yesterday and especially against Fruit Bat aka Rivera.
Ahhh, summertime brawls and BBS Yankee-Red Sox battles with Manny. Baseball has arrived in 2004. I still haven't caught the replay. Who threw the first "punch"?
It wasn't really a punch - more of an open-handed punch but a shove by Varitek to the face. But as I said up above, Rodriguez had said "F*ck you" about 3 times and waved his hand at the man. The funny thing is I was reading the Boston Globe last night (haven't read it yet this morning) and they were talking about the Sturtze family. It turns out that Tanyon's dad is a life-long SOX fan and that although he supports his son, he still pulls for the Sox! I wonder if that is still the case after his son got roughed up by Kapler (a workout beast), Ortiz (someone that you would NOT want to get into a brawl with), and Nixon (scrappy as hell and tough as nails). LOL!
