![]() ![]() For Boston, the franchise was still in the middle of its 85-year World Series drought, while the Yankees were trying to hold the line against its most bitter rival. “We’ve upgraded from a battle to a war,” Boston manager Grady Little said at the time, and the stakes could not have been higher. It was vintage Yankees-Red Sox with palpable hate in the air and the on-field violence to prove it. Sounds like a fairy tale, right? Well, this was your 2003 ALCS, where Pedro Martinez cravenly decked a charging Don Zimmer, Yankees outfielder Karim Garcia assaulted a Fenway groundskeeper, and Jorge Posada joined Manny Ramirez and Roger Clemens in threatening the lives of several people in attendance. ![]() (Somehow, no one was ejected from this game.) Garcia returns to field after bullpen scuffle. For a second, imagine a bench coach running out of a dugout to attack the opposing team’s star pitcher a visiting outfielder jumping into the home bullpen to do battle with a stadium employee and multiple other crazy events in the middle of the third playoff game in a hotly contested series. Those who miss the Yankees-Red Sox battles of yore point to games like this one from the 2003 ALCS. ![]() Asked what is was like hearing the roar of the crowd, Gaedel said, “Man, I felt like Babe Ruth.”Ģ. In fact, the moment became as poignant as madcap, as it was the last time Gaedel would ever appear in a Major League ballgame. Gaedel took his base - slowly, doffing his cap to the adoring crowd at several points - before being called back to the dugout for a pinch runner. If Gaedel swung, he would be shot, so the story goes. As recounted at the 2:13 mark in this clip from Ken Burns’s Baseball, Veeck told Gaedel he should by no means swing, and claimed he would have a sharpshooter with a rifle trained on him while he batted. He then took four consecutive pitches in what was reported to be a 1.5-inch strike zone (each pitch was high). (Veeck forced managers to heed the decisions of the crowd.) However, Veeck is best known for one insane stunt in which he signed Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot-7 midget, to pinch hit during the second game of a Browns doubleheader.īefore heading out to bat (wearing uniform No. 1/8), Gaedel popped out of a cake on the field. To Veeck, there was no point in having a bad team take the field without anything interesting for fans, so he took his awful squads and made them players in a carnival of his own devising.Īt one point, Veeck had ushers hand out signs reading “YES” or “NO” to fans at the gate so the manager would know which moves to make on the field. Louis Browns, and the team’s owner the legendary Bill Veeck. Here are five of the craziest events in the grand old game’s history.ġ. In our continuing series on the cheaters, brawlers, and otherwise scandalous individuals of baseball history, we focus on some of the wildest moments in the game’s unruly past. Yes, better athletes play better baseball in better stadiums with better conditions than before, but in some ways baseball has lost touch with its unkempt roots from country hardball. Major League Baseball has gotten progressively more mannered over the past decades, and some fans missed the wildness and uncouth actions of ballplayers of the past. Do you miss the days when Albert Belle bowled over hapless infielders and mound-charging was as common as extra-inning games? If so, you’ve come to the right place. ![]()
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