The game played between the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres on August 12, 1984 began like many games do…with the Braves taking the field in the top half of the 1st inning. It ended three hours later (as I recall) with a spectacular diving catch by center-fielder Dale Murphy in the top of the 9th inning to complete a 5-3 victory. But between those bookends was one of the craziest games I’ve ever seen. It was baseball and bedlam, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
It was a muggy, somewhat overcast Sunday at Fulton County Stadium…it looked like rain might be on the cards. The Braves were in 2nd place in the NL West, but were 9.5 games back of the division-leading Padres, their lead becoming more and more unassailable each day. The Braves sent Pascual Perez, a flambouyant, emotional, all-arms-and-legs righty to the hill against Ed Whitson.
Everything was fine…until the game’s first pitch, when Perez hit leadoff hitter Alan Wiggins. As he headed towards first base, Wiggins began jawing with Perez and players from both benches headed to the field. But everybody kind of stayed in their own camp, just pointing fingers at each other and talking about their favorite meal choices at Denny’s…or something.
When Perez came to bat in the 2nd, Whitson’s first pitch was thrown at Perez in retaliation. Perez jumped out of the way, avoiding the ball. When Padres catcher Terry Kennedy approached Perez, the pitcher-turned-target jumped away with his bat flailing about in front of him. Again there was a “meeting-of-the-teams” around home and some friendly conversation, but no fisticuffs. As a 15-year-old kid watching this game, it was suddenly starting to get interesting.
Perez came to bat again in the 4th, and Whitson threw at him again. Perez again avoided the pitch, and Whitson (as well as the Padres head coach) were ejected from the game. In came Greg Booker to replace Whitson. An uneasy calm was now pervasive. The fans were wondering what was going to happen. Skip Caray and Ernie Johnson were talking about the fact that, at some point, the Braves would likely respond to their pitcher’s plight. The game had really become a sideshow to the spectacle of “Perez Plays Dodgeball with Padres Pitchers”.
And to his credit, Perez went out each inning and did his thing. After plunking Wiggins, he was dominant, shutting down the Padres offense for eight innings and allowing but a single run. But maybe the Padres were just distracted…a big lead in the division and an opposing pitcher that was proving as elusive to hit as he was…well…elusive to hit.
Perez came to bat in the 6th, and Greg Booker took his shot at Perez. And this time, the Braves had seen enough. The benches were cleared in standard “brawl” format. Oh boy…a fight!! They rolled around a while, and Booker was ejected along with another Padres manager.
So the score now a handful of Padres players and coaches cashiered to the showers to the Braves none. All thoughts of a game were pretty much gone from my mind. There were still three innings of UFC-style baseball to go!!
Perez came to bat in the 8th, and Craig Lefferts (who had replaced Booker) finally ended the Padres game-long quest to “pin the fastball on the pitcher” when he succeeded in hitting Perez. The fight that ensued was pretty something. There was the typical pile in the middle of the field, but one Padre (Champ Summers) broke out of the fray and ran for Perez, who was hiding in the dugout (and probably wondering why he didn’t call in sick). Summers was met by Bob Horner, the Braves third basemen out for the season with a broken wrist. He had been up in the announcer’s booth until the antics began, at which point he donned his uniform and headed for the dugout in case he was needed.
Anyways, he grabbed Summers and wrestled him to the ground, where he was joined by a couple of fans who chucked their beers (coincidentally at Summers) and jumped onto the field and into the fray. I’m not sure, but I was probably cheering pretty loudly. A bunch more people got ejected, including a couple of Braves.
And we move to the 9th…
Braves coach Joe Torre had finally decided just to get poor Pascual out of the game, and called on Donnie Moore to finish things up. But Donnie Moore had other plans…like hitting Padres third baseman Graig Nettles. And wonder of wonders…another brawl!! It was rapidly getting out of control as fans were becoming involved and players already ejected were coming back onto the field.
Once order was restored (for the last time), the umpires sent all the players not directly involved with the game (it seemed like there were only 4 or 5 players left) back to the showers and the game finally ended.
For a Braves fan, it was a good day. The Braves won, way more Padres were ejected than Braves (13 players and coaches in all were tossed), some fans got arrested, and professional wrestling got a new venue for a day. A couple of times a year, fisticuffs break out between teams in the heat of the moment. But I’ve never seen a “start-to-finish” game like The Brawl Game.
Recommended Viewing: See the video – Sadly, this is the condensed version. It can’t possibly recapture the flavor and excitement of the original, but it gives you an idea.
A+ would read again