7 craziest baseball brawls of all time

Fights aren’t as common in baseball as they are in rougher sports like hockey. But they still happen, like this week’s bench-clearing brawl between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates.

The tense game blew up in the ninth inning Tuesday after Jared Hughes hit Starling Marte with a pitch. Chirping from the Pirates’ bench prompted Reds reliever Amir Garrett to charge them, starting the general brawl.

Officials ejected eight people from the game, including Reds manager David Bell who was tossed an inning before the fight but returned to join his players in the kerfuffle.

Rivalries between cities like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, bad pitches and general trash talking have all fueled fires that turned into fights during baseball games. Here are some of the craziest MLB brawls of all time:

2010 Reds-Cardinals

A lot of fights come in the wake of a batter being hit by a pitch. This one grew out of insults tossed between Reds batter Brandon Phillips and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina in the top of the first inning.

The situation quickly grew into an all-out brawl with a mass of players pressed up against the net behind home plate. The league fined four players and both managers, and suspended pitcher Johnny Cueto for seven games.

1993 Orioles-Mariners

Mariners catcher Bill Haselman had homered off Mike Mussina. Then Mussina hit him with a pitch in the seventh, and Haselman promptly charged the mound.

Both benches and bullpens charged onto the field, and the whole fracas lasted almost 20 minutes, according to MLB.com. Chris Bosio suffered a fractured collarbone.

2016 Rangers-Blue Jays

The tension between the teams from the previous October boiled over when Jose Bautista made an illegal hard slide into second. Rougned Odor responded by pushing Bautista and punching him in the face.

Both teams flooded the field and let out some pent up anger. Six players were ejected.

1993 Rangers-White Sox

Chicago’s Robin Ventura took a hit from one of Nolan Ryan’s fastballs and charged the mound. Ryan, 20 years older than Ventura, put him in a headlock and started punching.

Most of the players who ran out seemed ready to break up the fight — at first. But then another melee broke out. Mickey Hatcher got pulled out with blood running down the side of his face.

Ventura was ejected, while Ryan led the Rangers to a win.

2004 Yankees-Red Sox

In 2003, the New York-Boston rivalry seemed like it surely must have peaked when a brawl included 72-year-old Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer being thrown to the ground.

But the next summer, Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo nailed Alex Rodriquez — who only landed in New York after a trade to Boston was vetoed — with a pitch to the elbow.

A-Rod had some words for Arroyo, which catcher Jason Varitek didn't take kindly to and responded by punching the Yankees star. It quickly became a brawl between the two teams.

1965 Giants-Dodgers

These two California clubs had a rivalry stretching back to their New York routes, according to MLB.com. But the competition took a violent turn when Juan Marichal took offense to a toss from pitcher John Roseboro to pitcher Sandy Koufax that may have been intended to buzz him.

Marichal wielded a bat in the fight. Roseboro walked away bleeding from his face. The whole incident lasted 14 minutes.

1984 Braves-Padres

This may be the nastiest game in baseball history: the “bean brawl.”

First, Braves starter Pascual Perez hit Alan Wiggins with the first pitch of the game. Then, the Padres repeatedly targeted Perez when he was up at bat.

The scuffles throughout the game included three larger-scale brawls, according to MLB.com. Thirteen players and coaches were ejected. Five fans who stormed the field were also arrested.