It’s one thing for ballplayers to show up the opposition. It’s quite another when they show up their teammates. But you are wrong if you thought that behavior was reserved for Little Leaguers. It’s big-league stuff, too.
Let’s start with an incident in a 2021 game between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees.
Ross Stripling was on the mound for the Jays. He threw a knuckle curve to Giancarlo Stanton, who topped it and sent a slow roller down the third-base line. Toronto third baseman Joe Panik charged and fielded the ball bare-handed, but his throw sailed over the first baseman’s head, and Stanton was safe. Stripling proceeded to slap the grass and yell in Panik’s direction. Panik made another error in the first inning, leading to an unearned run, which may have fueled Stripling’s outburst.
But that is no excuse. At least, in this case, Stripling was repentant.
Ross Stripling: It’s the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever done, maybe ever, certainly on a baseball field. I’m completely embarrassed about it, and I let the moment get too big for me. Honestly, I’m mortified by it. I can’t stand how it went. I apologized to Joe individually. I even addressed the team because I felt so bad about it. That can’t happen. That should never happen. It’ll never happen again from me, I promise you that.
Another pitcher who regretted his actions was former Washington Nationals closer Jonathan Papelbon. He didn’t think teammate Bryce Harper hustled to first on a flyout to left field. Harper walked back to the dugout as Papelbon stood on the top step and yelled at him. When Harper entered the dugout, Papelbon grabbed him by the throat and drove him into the dugout wall. Both players described the fight as an isolated incident and said it was just a matter of tensions boiling over.
Jonathan Papelbon: First, I’ll say I’m in the wrong there. You know, I grew up with brothers. He grew up with brothers. I view him as a brother of mine. Sometimes, in this game, a lot of testosterone and intensity spills over, and I think that happened today. I can’t allow that to happen in the middle of a game. You handle that after the games or enable the manager to handle that. In that light of it, I’m wrong.
Other players have not been so apologetic, etching themselves in the minds of their fellow players and fans as toxic teammates.
Former Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano often publicly berated his fielders from the mound for making errors in the field. After a rough outing against the Atlanta Braves in 2007 (he gave up 13 hits and six earned runs in five innings in the loss), he went after his catcher, Michael Barrett, and Barrett and Zambrano got into a heated exchange in the dugout. Tempers flared, and a Zambrano punch left Barrett with a black eye.
In June 2002, Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent, who had a long-running behind-the-scenes feud, took it public with a brawl in the Giants dugout. It began with Kent yelling at third baseman David Bell over a play at second and then Bonds standing up for Bell. One thing led to another, and a lot of foul language was used, and pretty soon, we had the “Slugout in the Dugout.” San Francisco manager Dusty Baker had to separate the two, with Kent shouting that he didn’t want to be on the team anymore. Then Kent signed with the Astros as a free agent after the 2002 season.
Don Sutton and Steve Garvey were Dodger teammates from 1969 to 1980 and even had lockers next to each other. But there was no love lost between them. Their feud came to a head during the 1978 season. In a Washington Post article, Sutton said, “All you hear about on our team is Steve Garvey, the All-American boy. But Reggie Smith was the real MVP. We all know it … (Smith) has carried us for the last two years. He is not a facade. He does not have the Madison Avenue image.”
Garvey confronted Sutton, asking if the quotes were accurate. Sutton said they were, then leaped at Garvey and flung him against a row of lockers. The two players went down heavily and clawed at one another, trying ineffectually to land punches.
Many Dodgers didn’t like Garvey, and apparently, not everyone liked Sutton, either. According to Tommy John, during the brawl, someone yelled, “Stop the fight; they’ll kill each other!” Catcher Joe Ferguson responded, “Good!”
The Chicago Cubs’ double-play combination of Tinkers to Evers to Chance is renowned through a poem. Still, shortstop Joe Tinker and second baseman Johnny Evers, teammates from 1902-1913, didn’t talk to each other for 33 years, starting in 1905 after the two argued over a cab fare and later fought on the field. The day following the incident, Tinkers told Evers, “Don’t talk to me, and I won’t talk to you. You play your position, and I’ll play mine. Let it go at that.”
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Franklin Pierce Adams, 1910
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This column first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on June 17, 2021.
