The "Good Old Days" Of Baseball Fights

Fred Bierman of the New York Times wrote a very interesting article about the recent Yankees-Blue Jays fight, and compared it to three fights that all occurred during one rocky period of less than a year back in the 30's.

In 1932, a pair of holiday doubleheaders got out of hand. On Memorial Day, the White Sox lost both ends of a doubleheader to Cleveland and were unhappy with the calls of the home plate umpire George Moriarity, who himself was a player with the White Sox back in 1916. According to The New York Times, Moriarity responded by offering “to fight the whole White Sox team,” and after the game it appears that is just what happened.

Underneath the stands after the game, Moriarity punched Chicago pitcher Milton Gaston in the face, breaking his own hand and dropping Gaston to the ground. Moriarity was then set upon by Gaston’s teammates, who put him in the hospital with bruises and spike cuts. Moriarity was reprimanded by the league, Gaston was suspended for 10 games, and his manager and two of his teammates were fined.

Then, on July 4, the Yankees were in Washington for a doubleheader when Washington right fielder Carl Reynolds slid hard into Yankee catcher Bill Dickey, a future Hall of Famer. Dickey, who, according to The Times, was knocked unconscious on a similar play the night before in Boston, responded by punching Reynolds flush in the jaw. Reynolds’s jaw was broken in two places and Dickey received a 30-day suspension and a $1,000 fine. According to The Times, the American League “prescribed a similar penalty in any future cases of ‘unwarranted slugging.’ “

The next April, the bad blood still remained between these two teams and they got in an even bigger brawl when Ben Chapman slid hard into Washington second basemen Buddy Myer and cut him with his spikes. Myer kicked Chapman and Chapman responded with a flurry of punches. Both teams rushed onto the field, but order was soon restored. Moriarity happened to be the umpire that day, and he was the one who stepped between the two primary combatants.

The real trouble came when Chapman and Myer were ordered off the field. To get to the visitors’ clubhouse, Chapman had to pass through the Washington dugout, where Senators pitcher Earl Whitehill made a remark that Chapman took exception to. He punched Whitehill in the face, reigniting the brawl. This time, however, the fans got involved.

Time magazine reported: “The spectators, armed with bats they had picked up, tried to bash the players. The players bashed each other and the spectators. After 20 minutes, police managed to restore enough order for the ballgame to proceed.”

Now those are fights. Wow. Could you imagine how the crybabies today would respond to something like this? They'd probably want these guys banned for life and thrown in jail. Either way, I'm glad nobody was swinging bats at each other last week. Then there really could have been an injury, but I also wouldn't have minded seeing another Gaston getting his jaw busted.