Anatomy of a Bench-Clearing Brawl

I live in San Diego and am a partial-season ticket holder.  I was born and raised in Chicago as a Cubs fan, and have remained to this day.  I do enjoy baseball in general and going to Petco Park is a family endeavor for us, and I have pretty much raised my daughter as a Padres fan and my wife has adopted the team.  I have always said I am 95% Cubs fan and 5% Padres, although after this incident I would put it more like 99% to 1%.

At any rate, I thought it would be fun to lay out exactly what went into this bench-clearing brawl, since I predicted it to my wife on Saturday morning long before the game even started based on some comments made in the San Diego newspaper by a couple of the Padres.  So here is a description of what happened that resulted in two of the most universally liked guys in baseball coming to blows at Wrigley Field.

This all started with Alphonso Soriano's home run in Friday's game.  I would like to just embed the relevant videos here, but any MLB video that ends up on YouTube is almost immediately brought down due to MLB's copyright thugs (but that's another story).  At any rate, if you go to MLB/Cubs' Multimedia Center and click on the 6/15/07 Cubs/Padres Game, and then "Top Plays" and then on the right of the pop-up box "Soriano homers" you can see it there.  Note carefully Soriano's reaction to the home run, which was to take a few steps backward.  I don't like this kind of stuff, and am no fan of what Soriano has brought (or more accurately, not brought) to the Cubs, but it is pretty commonplace in today's game (think of Bonds' strut or Sosa's hops, for example).

Now we move to the San Diego Union Tribune's article entitled Strutting Soriano infuriates Padres, wherein Padres' pitcher Jake Peavy makes the following comment regarding Soriano's backward steps after hitting his home run:

I was really shocked when I read this.  How do you think the Cubs felt about it on Saturday morning when they read or heard about it?  It's like throwing gasoline on a small spark, there is sure to be an explosion.  It was at this point I immediately turned to my wife and said there would be a bench-clearing brawl at Wrigley today and that I would blame Peavy.  I do think that putting one in the ribs is a part of baseball, but you don't "predict" it, which puts your next pitcher in an awful tough jam if he accidentally comes inside.  

So now we fast forward to Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon with the Cubs' best hitter and one of the most well-liked and respected guys in baseball, Derek Lee, coming to the plate.  If the Padres' theory is, as Peavy described, that you hit not Soriano but rather another player, Derek Lee is probably the one they are going to hit, since he is the Cubs' best hitter.  Sure enough, Young fires one headed straight for DLee's head.  You can see the pitch and the entire resulting fight by again visiting MLB/Cubs' Multimedia Center.  This time, click on the 6/16/07 game and again click on Top Plays and, if it doesn't come up right away, click on "Benches clear in Chicago" on the right.  

If you notice, DLee was headed toward first base before the fight broke out.  He said something to Young, and Young said something back, and whatever Young said it immediately set DLee off.  I believe from various replays I have seen that Young said something along the lines of "just go to first base."  That doesn't seem to me like something someone says if they didn't intend to hit someone.  Nobody knows but Young and maybe some of the Padres if they had intended to hit someone, but from Young's reaction combined with Peavy's asinine comments I see no way of coming to any other conclusion than that Chris Young threw at Derek Lee's head as a way of "retaliating" for Soriano's few backward steps after hitting a home run.

So, on one side, we have a bit of irritating showboating.  On the other side, we have someone that could literally be messing with one of the most well-liked guys in all of baseball's livelihood.  A ball to someone's head could end their career.

I used to be a big fan of Peavy, but have lost all respect for him.  I have lost respect for Young as well, which is a shame because he seemed like a class act and is a Princeton grad, which is pretty cool.  I could maybe accept it as an accident if not for Peavy's comments and Young's apparent taunting of Derek as Derek walked clearly in the direction of first base.

I imagine MLB suspensions will be coming down later today.  I am sure DLee will get a suspension but I hope the league takes into account his reputation and at least equally punishes Peavy and Young for their roles in this disgusting display.

I am headed to Petco Park on Friday for the Red Sox game, and will proudly wear my Cubs hat and Derek Lee t-shirt.