Home Run Trot Turns into Bench Clearing Brawl
Helpless is a word that I would use to describe certain situations in life. For example, when you've done your business in the bathroom and realize there is no tissue, that's a helpless feeling. When your printer is spitting out 17 copies of a document because you smashed the print button a bunch of times trying to make it work, that's a helpless feeling.
Now in sports, I can't think of a more helpless feeling than a pitcher must feel after a batter has just given his fastball a ride out of the park. All the pitcher can do is stare at the ground, shake his head, and get ready for the next pitch. Meanwhile, the batter gets to trot around the bases enjoying the cheers or boos of the crowd.
Well, that's the way it's supposed to unfold at a baseball game however in last Friday night's minor league baseball game between the Reno Aces and Tacoma Rainier's things took a decidedly wicked and more physical turn.
Here's what happened. Henry Ramos is at the plate and he literally blasts a pitch from the Tacoma pitcher out of the ballpark. Now, Ramos' team is already ahead by seven runs so you can imagine the team from Tacoma is feeling a bit chippy. Especially when Ramos does the baseball equivalent of giving the other team the middle finger, he flips the bat after his huge blast.
It was not the best display of sportsmanship and some of the Tacoma players let Ramos hear about it as he trotted around the bases.
Ramos, obviously enjoyed the taunting as he continued the chinwag when he rounded second base. That's when the team from Tacoma had heard enough and decided to inflict a physical lesson on the Reno player.
Ramos responded by throwing his helmet at the guy. Which I don't understand at all. If I was going to be in a fight I'd not only want the helmet, I'd want the bat too. Needless to say, things escalated quickly.
The final score in the game wound up being 13 to 2 with the team from Tacoma getting the win. However, maybe the brawl was what the team from Reno needed for motivation because they won the next four games played against Tacoma to take a two-game lead in the standings over that same team.
Here's how the scene unfolded in real-time.