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This is not a headline you likely expected to read here, or anywhere else. The Arizona Fall League is a developmental league, with a relaxed atmosphere and players performing in front of small gatherings that include a lot of family members and scouts.
One of those scouts recorded this video of a brawl at an AFL game between Peoria and Scottsdale Saturday afternoon at Scottsdale Stadium:
From a scout: a brawl at the Arizona Fall League. pic.twitter.com/BVhJfSfBUR
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) November 6, 2021
Well, that’s pretty ugly. Why did that happen?
Holy cow. First brawl I’ve seen in 15 years covering the game. Josh Winckowski hit Canaan Smith-Njigba, who charged the mound and absolutely leveled Winckowski. Smith-Njigba was screaming about how he’d been thrown at two days in a row. That was wild.
— Josh Norris (@jnorris427) November 6, 2021
Josh Winckowski is a Red Sox prospect and Canaan Smith-Njigba plays in the Pirates system. Here’s a bit more detail:
He entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and this was the first and only pitch thrown. I do not have a video feed, but that looks pretty far inside. pic.twitter.com/eEBzBhVvtZ
— Jake Crouse (@JakeCrouseMLB) November 6, 2021
Let’s hope this brawl was a typical baseball fight with a lot of milling around and no one getting hurt. Both players were ejected by umpire Nestor Ceja. Ceja did some fill-in work in MLB games during the 2021 season.
This all happened in the ninth inning of the game:
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Scottsdale won the game 11-7. Here’s hoping for no more of these the rest of the AFL season.