Fight on: Looking back at the Rangers’ most memorable base-brawls
Rougned Odor’s right hand connecting with Jose Bautista’s left cheek and the melee that ensued will go down in Rangers folklore. But the Rangers already had an interesting brawl history with one funny (Nolan’s punching dummy), one that sounds more like a bar fight (drunken fans storm the field) and one downright disturbing (chair breaks woman’s nose). Here are those three memorable brawls:
Rangers vs. White Sox, Aug. 4, 1993: The most famous (and fan favorite) of all the Rangers brawls could be surpassed by the Odor punch. In the second inning, Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan hit White Sox Robin Ventura on what seemed like an innocent pitch that got away from him. But Ventura took exception, charged the mound and probably regretted it from the beginning. Ryan immediately put Ventura into a headlock and starting wailing away. Ryan continued to pitch seven innings and got the win. Ventura was ejected.
Rangers at A’s, Sept. 13, 2004: File this under: most bizarre brawl. After constant heckling by an A’s fan aimed at the way-too-close-to-the-field Rangers bullpen, reliever (and current Rangers pitching coach) Doug Brocail confronted the fan, which started an altercation. Then, reliever Frank Francisco took matters into his own hands in the form of a chair that he threw into the crowd, hitting the heckler’s wife in the face. Francisco was arrested after the game and given a 16-game suspension by the MLB.
Rangers at Indians, June 4, 1974: In today’s world of $9.25 beers, the thought of a 10-Cent Beer Night seems ridiculous, but it happened at Cleveland Stadium in 1974. Fueled by dirt-cheap brew, some fans reached the tipping point in the ninth inning and ran out onto the field and attacked Rangers outfielder Jeff Burroughs (glasses in the above photo), leading to more fans storming onto the field. Even the Indians players jumped in to protect the Rangers. Safe to say that was the last 10-Cent Beer Night.
From the photo archives, here are four more that aren’t famous but were interesting:
Rangers at A’s, Sept. 16, 2007: Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla had a penchant for plunking and, after hitting Nick Swisher IN THE FIRST INNING after a couple of obviously-trying-to-hit-you inside pitches, the A’s slugger understandably charged the mound, tackling the Rangers pitcher.
Rangers vs. Royals, May 7, 1977: According to the caption, the fight occurred in the fourth inning after Rangers second baseman Bump Wills was knocked down. Wills is not pictured, but a high-flying Juan Beniquez definitely is.
Rangers vs. Angels, June 23, 1983: This bench-clearing brawl started when Angels second baseman Bobby Grich blocked Rangers Wayne Tolleson’s path back to second on a pickoff attempt in the first inning. Notice umpire Dale Ford playing peacemaker.
Rangers at Angels, July 3, 1978: From the look of things, a true dust-up. This home-plate scuffle was started after words were exchanged between the Rangers Bert Campaneris and the Angels Ken Brett after Campaneris was tagged out by Brett at home after a passed ball.
Photos from AP archive
This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 1:01 PM.