Fight night

Gene Steinmeyer

If you are any kind of sports fan and follow Major League Baseball just a little, you are aware of the fighting problems of the Kansas City Royals. Ever since Oakland Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie slid into the Royals shortstop with his spikes up, the Royals have had issues with opposing players.

Add the fact that the Royals’ players have been hit almost 20 times already this season; you can see why they are just a little sensitive. Last week, there was a bench-clearing brawl when Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura and White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton exchanged pleasantries during a ground out to the mound.

Television blacked out the players’ mouths so youngsters couldn’t read lips. I’m pretty sure those youngsters have heard those imagined words many times just from their parents yelling at umpires.

What’s ironic is the most famous brawl in baseball history happened 22 years ago and involved the White Sox manager, Robin Ventura. No relation to Yordano, Robin charged the mound against the Texas Rangers’ ace, Nolan Ryan.

Ventura played for the White Sox back then. He was considered as a “classy” player and not that aggressive. Everyone knew no one messed with Ryan, who was nearing the final years of his long Hall of Fame career. During the White Sox series with the Rangers, four White Sox batters had been hit by pitches.

Ryan felt like he “owned” the outer half of the plate. The White Sox were known to dive into pitches. That irritated Ryan, who hit Ventura in the back with a pitch. Ventura took two steps to first before charging the mound.

It was a bad decision. Ventura even admitted that about halfway to the mound, he thought, “My God, that’s Nolan Ryan out there.” Ryan immediately got Ventura in a headlock and landed four punches to Ventura’s head before anyone could arrive to save him.

The fight lasted 20 seconds. Look it up on YouTube. Ventura was embarrassed. To add insult to injury, Ventura was kicked out of the game for charging one of baseball’s icons.

Ryan came out of pile bloody, but stayed in the game and was the winning pitcher. He later claimed he would have been hurt, but he was saved by White Sox outfielder Bo Jackson. I guess Bo did know.

My whole point is Ventura should not be too offended by the Royals’ actions. During the weekend, four Royals batters were hit by pitches and no one charged the mound. However, four Royals were ejected after the Ventura-Eaton verbal exchange and the ensuing bench-clearing brawl. Times have changed.

Baseball isn’t the only sport where athletes get a little frisky. During my senior season of basketball, I bumped into a player from Exeter, Nebraska as we were heading to our locker rooms at halftime. We squared off before my teammates threw me in our locker room. I hate to admit it, but that was a good thing. The Exeter guy would have beaten me like Ryan did Robin Ventura.

Fist-of-cuffs only happened a couple of times during the women’s basketball games I coached over 28 years. None of the incidences led to a big brawl. Kim Crider, who played for me at Doane College, once came to the bench with a fat lip courtesy of a haymaker thrown by an Oklahoma player. No one saw it but the two combatants.

Sarah Vollertsen, an All-MIAA performer for me at Northwest, once leveled a Rolla player with an elbow to the nose. The Rolla player went down like she was shot, but again the officials didn’t see it. I got Sarah out of the lineup before anything else could happen. I doubt if anyone from Rolla would have retaliated. The look on Sarah’s face even scared her own teammates.

The best bench-clearing brawl came late one night during a youth basketball tournament I ran at Northwest as a fundraiser. A high school girls’ club team from the Kansas City was playing a club team from Lincoln.

I had been alerted things were getting a little heated. I found a big, noisy crowd from Lincoln. The Kansas City team didn’t have a single fan in the stands. The Lincoln fans were instigating bad behavior on the court by constant criticism of the officials and the Kansas City players.

With about four minutes left in the game, a Kansas City player fouled a Lincoln player. It was a hard foul and the Lincoln player took a swing at the Kansas City player. The benches cleared and we had a tough time getting the teams separated.

I even had to call Campus Safety to hold back the Lincoln fans. The only damage was a split lip to the Lincoln player who threw the first punch. Her mother threatened to sue if her daughter needed plastic surgery, which really was the funniest thing that night.

I kicked both teams out of the tournament and that was the end of it. The Lincoln team actually came back to the tournament a couple of years later, but they behaved themselves. I didn’t detect any facial scars on any of their players.

If high school girls can get that angry during a recreational game, imagine what it takes to control a baseball player making millions of dollars? A few Royals were given suspensions. No big deal.