Friday Five: Top Five BaseBrawls

This past weekend the internet exploded when Rangers second baseman decked Jose Bautista after he slid hard into second base.  Bautista's slide was triggered by his being hit intentionally by the Rangers.  The Rangers hit Bautista because he did that ridiculous bat flip against them in the playoffs last year.  So, the fight was caused by some sort of circle of unwritten baseball rules.

While I often eye roll at the whole "unwritten rules of baseball phrase", it's hard to pass up a good BaseBrawl every once in awhile.  So, today for my Friday Five I am going to do a countdown of the Top Five BaseBrawls of all-time.  I am also going to throw in a bonus pair for the Cardinals and former Durham Bulls players.  Let's do the bonus pairs first:

Former Durham Bulls:
I am pretty sure that fights between the Rays and Red Sox could make up there own list, so the first one for the former Durham Bulls players will be a player on the Rays, which is their parent club.  This James Shields/Coco Crisp fight took place in 2008 after "Big Game" plunked Coco.  There is a Red Sox player with a nice tackle on Shields and Carl Crawford looks like he's going to go Hannibal Lector on Coco on the replay starting at 2:50.

An old one, but good one.  Former White Sox pitcher, and Durham Bull, Jim Parque beamed Dean Palmer and a large fight ensued.  At the end Robert Fick celebrates the fact that he got punched and gets beer thrown on him.

Cardinals Brawls: 

I have to go with two dark horses here.  The first is a crazy fight between the Cubs and Cardinals.  I am not sure what the Cubs manager is doing at the beginning of this clip, but it's just weird.  Good brawl though.  

and one of the all-time most underrated fights...Cardinals and Giants from 1986.  Whitey Herzog and Roger Craig are in the middle of this fight.  Not too many fights that involve the managers.  The police also end up on the field.  I went to this game, for my mom's birthday.  Good present.  Sorry about the quality.  

5.  Reggie Sanders and Pedro Martinez - 1994 

This is a good brawl, but the circumstances of this brawl make it really underrated.  Pedro Martinez was having a great night and had a perfect game going in the eighth inning against the Reds.  Earlier in the game, Martinez had thrown inside against Reggie.  In the eighth, after showing his displeasure at Martinez pitch location, gets drilled by Pedro Martinez.  You don't see too many players blow their perfect game in the eighth inning by beaming a batter.  

4.  Ray Knight and Eric Davis - 1986 

Ray Knight was already pretty low on my list before this happened.  I get it, Gary Carter tried throwing out a runner, and it was the mid 1980s.  

3.  Tino Martinez and Armado Benitez 1998 

This is a pretty crazy fight.  Lots of really good players in this fight.

2.  Craig Lefferts and Pascual Perez 1984 

Not the biggest names, but a good brawl.  Champ Summers almost turns this into a Malice at the Palace type of fight.  Bob Gibson stays calm.  Here's in there.  

1.  Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura 1993