Day 6: 30 baseball books in 30 days of April
The book: "Benchclearing: Baseball's Greatest Fights and Riots"
The author: Spike Vrusho
How to find it: Globe Pequot Press (Lyons Press), 304 pages, $16.95
Where we'd go looking for it: Our trusted friends at Powell's online bookstore.
The scoop: That meyhem depicted on the cover had us originally thinking it was from the Dodgers' bruhaha at Wrigley Field back in 2000, when a fan down in the bullpen and tried to run off with Chad Kreuter's hat. Before you knew it, coaches John Shelby and Rick Dempsey were heading into the stands, with a bunch of other players right behind them, leading to 16 players and three coaches suspended.
Upon further review, it looks more like the Dodgers tangling with the Angels, back with the Halos had those weird blue jerseys and hats. We spot Mike Piazza at the bottom, pitching coach Dave Wallace in the middle, hitting coach Reggie Smith in front ... When was this? The book doesn't really shed much more light on it. But it made for one intense cover.
Vrusho tries to attack this subject from all angles, staring with a discussion about the raw nature of competitive sports, its roots, and then dividing everything sort of incident into its own chapters.
The famed Nolan Ryan-Robin Ventura headlock is in Chapter 2 (Pitched Battles: Ultimate confrontation of pitcher vs. batter). Pete Rose vs. Bud Harrelson, and the Dodgers' Chan Ho Park trying to karate kick the Angels' Tim Belcher is in Chapter 3 ("90 Feet of Mayhem").
In Chapter 5's "Fan Depreciation," we get into Kreuter's Wrigley confining situation, plus our favorite: the Dodgers' Smith going into the stands at Candlestick Park to find Giants fan Michael Dooley. And, why not, the Dodgers' Milton Bradley not enjoying a free beer at Dodger Stadium is included.
Billy Martin deserves his whole chapter (No. 10), involving his dugout deal in '77 with Reggie Jackson, and then with the Yankees pitcher Ed Whitson in 1985 (leaving Martin with a broken arm and two broken ribs) in a hotel. Oh, and of course, the marshmellow salesman.
Chapter 12 unfortunately recounts the horrible Juan Marichal-Johnny Roseboro mess in '65. You can't ever make that one go away.
Chapter 15 revisits Steve Garvey and Don Sutton from their clubhouse tussel from '78, sparked when Sutton, in a Washington Post article, 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 the last two years. He is not a facade. He does not have the Madison Avenue image."
Also included from Dodger history are Pedro Guerrero vs. the Mets' David Cone (May 22, 1988 at Dodger Stadium); the Dodgers' vs. Seattle's bullpen (July 11, 1999 at Dodger Stadium), Rick Dempsey vs. the Phillies' Lenny Dykstra (Aug. 20, 1990 at Dodger Stadium), Joe Ferguson vs. the Padres' Bill Greif (July 1, 1975, Dodger Stadium, leaving Ferguson with a broken arm) and the Mike Marshall (the former outfielder) and teammate Phil Garner (both of the Dodgers) on Sept. 2, 1987.
After that, both had some shiners to show for it.
How it goes down in the scorebook: A TKO.
Leave a comment