Fight Night at the Fens
When it was announced that Red Sox reliever Julian Tavarez had been designated for assignment, most of us lamented the fact that we’d lost another player who wasn’t afraid to throw down when the situation called for it. With the loss of Trot Nixon and the acquisition of infamous nice guy Sean Casey, we figured the only slugging we’d see would come from David Ortiz’s bat.
But then Coco Crisp decided he’d had enough last night, and started the best fight at Fenway Park since Pedro Martinez dropped Don Zimmer.
The Sox outfielder rushed the mound after he was hit by a James Shield’s pitch in the bottom of the second inning. Coco’s moves have met with universal approval here at Boston Daily HQ. “He looked like Neo from The Matrix out there,” someone quipped at the coffee pot.
Coco continued to air his grievances with the Rays, telling NESN later in the locker room that the players were scratching him “like little girls.”
But perhaps the weirdest part of last night’s fight was watching Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis duke it out later in the game. Don Orsillo expressed shock that Manny could get that upset about anything. Amalie Benjamin reports that nobody in the clubhouse would give an explanation, but that Terry Francona blamed it on boys being boys.
“I think they were just exchanging some views on things,” he said. “We had a lot of testosterone going tonight. It was kind of a hectic night. Sometimes those things happen. It wasn’t really a big deal, it won’t be a big deal, it happens. We’ll get by that one. In fact, it’s been handled and we’ll move on from that one.”
Maybe we need Tavarez back to keep Manny calm.
June 6th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Although I felt that Coco brought this on himself and got bent out of shape over a small thing (Bartlett blocking the bag), I have absolutely no respect for Johnny Gomes or Carl Crawford. Shields did what he had to do and everyone knew that was going to happen, but to rush into a pile and start throwing punches, scratching, and pulling the hair of someone who is being held done are the moves of first rate punks.
They should get ready to tell the media what a 90 mph fastball to the ribs feels like, courtesy of Josh Beckett.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
where was manny when the everything was going on? except for heading back to the dugout at the end,did anyone get a manny sighting during the melee? i sure didn’t.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
MANNY WAS BEING MANNY - HE’S A LOVER NOT A FIGHTER. aCTUALLY MANNY CANNOT THROW HIS FISTS, HE IS KIND OF A WIMP. THAT BEING SAID, HE IS THE BEST HITTER IN BASEBALL,BAR NONE
June 7th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Manny acting like a true knucklehead but we still love him. Thanks for making the game interesting.
http://www.bostonknucklehead.com