Baseball brawls are in the news this week after San Diego's plate-crowding Carlos Quentin was hit by a pitch and charged the mound. The result was a broken collarbone for Zack Greinke, the Dodgers' high-priced righthander, that could keep out of action for two months.
The wildest baseball brawl that I've witnessed came on July 16, 1974 _ Twins vs. Brewers on a Tuesday night at Met Stadium.
The Brewers were leading 5-2 entering the seventh. Ray Corbin relieved Dave Goltz to start the inning. He struck out Robin Yount and Don Money. That brought up outfielder Bobby Coluccio, who was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Corbin's first pitch was a fastball that struck Coluccio's batting helmet near his left temple. Coluccio fell into the batter's box, picked himself up and made two strides toward the mound, and then collapsed in front of the plate.
"It looked like he froze," Corbin said. "I was just trying to brush him back. And he had been hitting us pretty good."
The Brewers were convinced that was the reason Coluccio had been hit: the three hits earlier in the game that had put him in the middle of three scoring rallies.
Coluccio was still on the ground as players from both teams started to congregate. The angriest of the Brewers appeared to be veterans John Briggs and George Scott.
Rod Carew stepped between Corbin and the two Brewers. "Briggs and Scott were swearing quite a bit, but I didn't think they wanted to hit anyone," Carew said.