Cubs vs White Sox fight!

[Team Clark]

This is one of the better brawls in the past 5 years. An actual punch landing gives this 4 stars.

Most of the good brawls I can remember involved the Reds but this one was good. In the 90's I attended two Reds games in which Dibble started brawls. He actually was getting choked at home plate in one of them.

I have on tape a great brawl in Houston when Ron Gant took Pat Borders to the cleaners. Another fight ensued a few innings later.

I used to have tape of Junior slinging his bat at Mark Langston after Langston threw two pitches behind his head. If memory serves, the bat hit the mound and clipped Langston.

I remember another doozie in NY when Dibble pounded Teufel in the middle of the back enciting another bar room type brawl.

Strawberry going into the dugout and punching someone was pretty wild too. I believe he was a Yankee at the time.

My favorite player ejection was Carl Everett as a Red Sox head butting the umpire. To be honest I felt the ump deserved it. I know that is not a popular position and I certainly would never condone that behavior from any player. I just felt that guy had it coming.

[Hap]

Let us compare the collision to a typical collision between a running back and a strong safety in a football (at any level) game. If the safety makes a good play, he gets up and talks some trash and celebrates with his teammates. The guy who gets tackled picks himself up and maybe talks some trash right back and then goes back to the huddle. He does not walk over to the safety and sucker punch him in the face like he is in junior high school.

[vaticanplum]

I was there. I am, of course, predisposed to dislike the Cubs, but I am inclined to think that my extreme distaste for this team and its attitude is only vindicated by this incident and not a precursor for how I saw it. AJ was doing his job. He was doing it snottily and pointedly, but he did nothing inherently wrong. He was WALKING AWAY from home plate, and Barrett grabbed him, pulled him back, and nailed him in the face. There is absolutely no excuse for that. Pierzynski takes a lot of crap for his behavior. In my opinion he is brash and arrogant but rarely out of line, and off the field apparently one of the nicest White Sox in terms of the fans and a favorite in the clubhouse. I know he was hated in San Francisco, but perhaps the team just wasn't a fit for him which is hardly surprising given the presence of a certain other player in San Francisco with a slight reputation for arrogance. It's possible that both of those egos simply couldn't be contained there.

And yet somehow AJ seems to have garnered this reputation that makes it ok for people to do stuff like this to him in the eyes of many fans. What Barrett did was immature, inexcusable, pointless and dangerous, and the very worst of the machismo side of baseball that I try to pretend doesn't exist lest incidents like this override my love for the game.

And then today, Pierzynski nails a solo home run -- once again just doing his job, and doing it well for that matter -- to tie the game at 2-2, and Zambrano, who's pitching, freaks out and start threatening the Sox bench, saying he's going to nail a White Sox in the back. Guillen comes out, the umps have to calm everybody, and another brawl is just barely avoided. Perhaps something aside from Pierzynski irritated Zambrano; I didn't see anything else, and if so, I don't really care. WTF, seriously. Carlos Zambrano is a complete nutjob, and doesn't seem to incur the wrath that people like Pierzynski does. Why? Because he can pitch? I had someone argue to me that Zambrano is not that bad because he only freaks out when he's pitching poorly, ie. he's perfectly calm when he's doing well. So let's give Zambrano a hand for attaining the maturity level of a two-year-old, shall we? At this point, actions such as that are nothing short of sore loserdom in my eyes, utterly tasteless and classless. I'm dead serious, if Zambrano were on my team he would have been shipped out by now, I don't care how many strikeouts he can throw. If you're going to lose, at least lose with some grace and with fistfights kept to a minimum.

[Cedric]

I was there. I am, of course, predisposed to dislike the Cubs, but I am inclined to think that my extreme distaste for this team and its attitude is only vindicated by this incident and not a precursor for how I saw it. AJ was doing his job. He was doing it snottily and pointedly, but he did nothing inherently wrong. He was WALKING AWAY from home plate, and Barrett grabbed him, pulled him back, and nailed him in the face. There is absolutely no excuse for that. Pierzynski takes a lot of crap for his behavior. In my opinion he is brash and arrogant but rarely out of line, and off the field apparently one of the nicest White Sox in terms of the fans and a favorite in the clubhouse. I know he was hated in San Francisco, but perhaps the team just wasn't a fit for him which is hardly surprising given the presence of a certain other player in San Francisco with a slight reputation for arrogance. It's possible that both of those egos simply couldn't be contained there.

And yet somehow AJ seems to have garnered this reputation that makes it ok for people to do stuff like this to him in the eyes of many fans. What Barrett did was immature, inexcusable, pointless and dangerous, and the very worst of the machismo side of baseball that I try to pretend doesn't exist lest incidents like this override my love for the game.

And then today, Pierzynski nails a solo home run -- once again just doing his job, and doing it well for that matter -- to tie the game at 2-2, and Zambrano, who's pitching, freaks out and start threatening the Sox bench, saying he's going to nail a White Sox in the back. Guillen comes out, the umps have to calm everybody, and another brawl is just barely avoided. Perhaps something aside from Pierzynski irritated Zambrano; I didn't see anything else, and if so, I don't really care. WTF, seriously. Carlos Zambrano is a complete nutjob, and doesn't seem to incur the wrath that people like Pierzynski does. Why? Because he can pitch? I had someone argue to me that Zambrano is not that bad because he only freaks out when he's pitching poorly, ie. he's perfectly calm when he's doing well. So let's give Zambrano a hand for attaining the maturity level of a two-year-old, shall we? At this point, actions such as that are nothing short of sore loserdom in my eyes, utterly tasteless and classless. I'm dead serious, if Zambrano were on my team he would have been shipped out by now, I don't care how many strikeouts he can throw. If you're going to lose, at least lose with some grace and with fistfights kept to a minimum.

If Zambrano was on my team I would wake up every morning and thank the baseball gods.

[CTA513]

If Zambrano was on my team I would wake up every morning and thank the baseball gods.

[ThatPitchIsDunn]

I was there. I am, of course, predisposed to dislike the Cubs, but I am inclined to think that my extreme distaste for this team and its attitude is only vindicated by this incident and not a precursor for how I saw it. AJ was doing his job. He was doing it snottily and pointedly, but he did nothing inherently wrong. He was WALKING AWAY from home plate, and Barrett grabbed him, pulled him back, and nailed him in the face. There is absolutely no excuse for that.

On top of all this, his helmet came off in the collision; he was going to retrieve it when Barrett grabbed him.

As much of a well-noted mouth-off AJ seems to be, I have to say I loved him in the dugout afterward hitting his own face and getting all fired up, showing the punch didn't faze him. Sometimes you need to show that you won't just wilt at a cheap shot.

[penantboundreds]

Interesting play...Barrett hopefully gets 10 games. I say this, and I know it is low, after hearing him after the game. He should do some community service about playing the game the right way to some little leaguers. He is a good guy with good intentions for the game (barrettfletcher baseball) and he seemed like he was just dazed and did not realize AJ was just playing hard, I believe the hit just knocked him out in a sense. He apologized and 10 games should suit him.

[harangatang]

He was making fun of the Cubs? I do not see a problem.

The Cubs suck this year no doubt but when you start mouthing off after all the events that transpired you can't expect Barrett to just calmly brush things off. It's just kind of like the rich kid getting mouthed off by the poor kid and the poor kid knocks the rich kid to the ground. I don't blame Barrett, A.J.'s actions were out of line and he got what he had coming to him. If you're going to dance you got to pay the piper. Paying the piper in this case was a deserved punch to the face for A.J. If A.J. would have gotten up and not said anything none of the events would have transpired after the incident. Instead, he gets a punch, his other teammates get in fights, and sheds a bad light on the White Sox which then sheds bad light on the Cubs. Not to mention he apparantly hadn't had enough so he makes fun of Zambrano today after he crosses home plate. What an absolute jerk and a bad example for all of mankind.

[vaticanplum]

I don't blame Barrett, A.J.'s actions were out of line and he got what he had coming to him. If you're going to dance you got to pay the piper. Paying the piper in this case was a deserved punch to the face for A.J. If A.J. would have gotten up and not said anything none of the events would have transpired after the incident. Instead, he gets a punch, his other teammates get in fights, and sheds a bad light on the White Sox which then sheds bad light on the Cubs. Not to mention he apparantly hadn't had enough so he makes fun of Zambrano today after he crosses home plate. What an absolute jerk and a bad example for all of mankind.

Where are you getting your information about Pierzynski? People have different versions of events.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASA...=.jsp&c_id=cws

Pierzynski claims he was not "making fun" of Zambrano and even Zambrano himself admits that he couldn't hear what, if anything, Pierzynski was saying to him. As for Barrett, there were no words from AJ there, questionable actions perhaps, but nothing warranting such a punch. And he did nothing in retaliation to either of these events, which shows a lot more class than what the Cubs did.

I think he has a bad rap, some of it deserved, but I think that it causes people to feel they have a free pass to treat him any way they want at any time and chalk it up to his reputation. Apparently, these people are successful.

[harangatang]

Where are you getting your information about Pierzynski? People have different versions of events.

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASA...=.jsp&c_id=cws

Pierzynski claims he was not "making fun" of Zambrano and even Zambrano himself admits that he couldn't hear what, if anything, Pierzynski was saying to him. As for Barrett, there were no words from AJ there, questionable actions perhaps, but nothing warranting such a punch. And he did nothing in retaliation to either of these events, which shows a lot more class than what the Cubs did.

I think he has a bad rap, some of it deserved, but I think that it causes people to feel they have a free pass to treat him any way they want at any time and chalk it up to his reputation. Apparently, these people are successful.

If I am wrong in my facts in a circumstance similar to this please correct me and thank you for doing that. I agree that if Pierzynski did nothing and got that kind of response that Barrett is in the wrong and A.J. showed much more class.

[Outshined_One]

I was there. I am, of course, predisposed to dislike the Cubs, but I am inclined to think that my extreme distaste for this team and its attitude is only vindicated by this incident and not a precursor for how I saw it. AJ was doing his job. He was doing it snottily and pointedly, but he did nothing inherently wrong. He was WALKING AWAY from home plate, and Barrett grabbed him, pulled him back, and nailed him in the face. There is absolutely no excuse for that. Pierzynski takes a lot of crap for his behavior. In my opinion he is brash and arrogant but rarely out of line, and off the field apparently one of the nicest White Sox in terms of the fans and a favorite in the clubhouse. I know he was hated in San Francisco, but perhaps the team just wasn't a fit for him which is hardly surprising given the presence of a certain other player in San Francisco with a slight reputation for arrogance. It's possible that both of those egos simply couldn't be contained there.

Go back and watch the replay, AJ didn't come out like a saint. The play at the plate was legal, but after that he did some questionable things. Slamming home plate in celebration with his hand was one of them. When he got up, he walked away from his own dugout and bumped Barrett, be it by accident or on purpose. I'm inclined to believe that he was going to retrieve his helmet since he and Barrett are apparently friends off the field, but I could be wrong.

I'm curious to see what Brian Anderson ends up getting. If you watch him on the replay, he goes nuts throwing haymakers at Barrett and Mabry.