By Josh:
I will admit it that I enjoy watching the benches clear at a baseball game. I’m not a fan of fighting or like when a guy gets hurt. However, as a baseball fan I understand that sometimes a good benches clearing moment can help teams work out their disagreements.
Sunday afternoon the Blue Jays and Rangers had an opportunity to work out their disagreements.
This all really began last year in the playoffs when Jose Bautista may have gotten a little excited after hitting a homerun. With a little pose and bat flip to end all bat flips he let the Rangers know that he was THE MAN.
On Sunday he got hit by a pitch. On his way to first base he felt a need to remind the Rangers he was still THE MAN. This isn’t what caused the sternly worded discussion that would soon follow.
Bautista would initiate the disagreement with a slide into second that just might have been a few feet late. Bautista, controversy, slide, wait I think I’ve heard this one before this year already.
Rougned Odor felt that Bautista came in late and tried to do more than just break up a double play. After watching the video I would say I think there might be something to that argument. Bautista seemed to be aiming more at the back leg than the base.
Either way the two men stood up and felt like they needed to discuss it like two testosterone driven college frat guys by pushing each other to see who was the most manly. Odor however, didn’t feel that this was a true test of manliness and decided to up the ante with a perfectly placed right cross. I have to admit I saw Odor as a 17 year old in the Northwest League and as small as he was I would have never picked him to start a discussion like this.
He did though and what was already a matchup of two teams that had some bad blood, turned into a full on brawl. No one ever wins a baseball brawl. Well except for Nolan Ryan against Robin Ventura, Ryan won that one six times. Odor though definitely scored a good point for contact.
Now it’s time for MLB to step in and hand out all of the awards for the brawl. I have a feeling Odor might get the biggest award of like 8 games.