That was like watching Ali vs. Frazer. The Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox’s completely useless outing against one another ended up in an all-out BRAWL as White Sox’s Tim Andersen and Guardian’s Jose Ramirez squared off like Ali vs. Frazer.
How did such a boring game have such an exciting affair?
Despite being a matchup between two below average teams, the Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox had one of the biggest brawls of the season thus far as Tim Andersen and Jose Ramirez choose violence against one another for really no reason. And, I loved every minute of it.
Now, being perfectly honest, I was not watching the Guardians vs. White Sox series as…well, I value my sanity more than Guardians and White Sox fans. Okay, the White Sox are a truly terrible team with them currently sitting at 45-68 and a full 13.5 games behind first place in the AL Central, but the Guardians aren’t too terrible.
Yeah, the Guardians are playing in the worst division in the Amercian League and are also sub .500 with a 54-58 record, but they are only 4 games behind AL West division leaders Minnesota Twins. And, with series matchups against their division rivals like the Chicago White Sox being one of the best avenues they have to overcome the Twins and clinch a second-straight playoff berth, this game did matter quite a bit to them and their fanbase.
But, for anyone else (such as myself) who really couldn’t care less about a division that has a team leading the way with a record of 58-54, I was most definitely not watching. And I don’t think the Guardians players bothered watching either as they were getting utterly destroyed right before the brawl.
The White Sox really showed no mercy to the Guardians and their fanbase prior to the brawl as they racked off 5 runs and caused Noah Syndergaard to give up 5 ERs and 9 hits to just 3 strikeouts of his own before forcing him off the mound after just 6 innings. Reversely, the Guardians big hitters couldn’t hit a ball if their lives depended on it at that point (they ended up scoring four runs in total) as they had just a single hit on Michael Kopech.
It really was a boring, lifeless game as the Guardians fans were leaving the stadium by the time Jose Ramirez and Tim Andersen decided to take up a second career in boxing and give the Cleveland fans a show.
In what was a really tame play, Ramirez got a base hit off Kopech and was looking to steal to second in a diving attempt. Yet, White Sox shortstop Tim Andersen, who has been gathering a bit of a reputation for being a little TOO forceful with his tags, dragged both of his hands and his glove across Ramirez’s face in an unsuccessful tag out.
And, as you’d expect from a guy who essentially just got punched/slapped in the face, Ramirez was very upset and started talking back to Andersen…who didn’t back down. After a few seconds and the umpire not being able to break the two up, Andersen actually SQUARED UP with Ramirez and the two started flinging some of the wildest, unathletic punches I’ve ever seen!
It was truly one of the funniest moments I’ve seen in baseball with Guardians play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton perfectly calling the brawl. As both benches cleared and the two mangers nearly tore each other’s heads off, Ramirez caught Andersen with a vicious right hand and he sent the shortstop down to the ground.
Hamilton’s “DOWN GOES ANDERSEN” call made the moment even better, but watching Andersen stumble around and clumsily try to get back into the fight was so funny as Andersen really did deserve to get knocked down a peg.
At the end of the brawl, both Andersen and Ramirez were ejected, White Sox manager Pedro Grifo and Guardians manager Terry Francona were ejected, Guardians closer Emmanuel Claser, and Guardians third base coach Mike Sarbaugh were also ejected from the game.
It’s still a little crazy that this fight became so massive as I really didn’t think the situation warranted such a response, but I can’t turn down a baseball bench-clearing brawl when I get one.
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