“All of a sudden we were punching each other. No reason. These things just happen sometimes.” - Lou Piniella, 1976
The Boston Red Sox have not had a good old-fashioned bench-clearing brawl in a long time. They’re due. In fact, they’re overdue. Throughout the 1990’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s, there were a plethora of skirmishes, fracases, and donnybrooks. We saw fisticuffs, frays, melees, and brouhahas. We saw pushing, shoving, and, in some cases, pushing AND shoving.
The Lou Piniella quote from after his 1976 dust-up with Carlton Fisk at home plate could succinctly describe each of the incidents below.