Fight! Brawl! Donnybrook! Rhubarb!
Crafting the Call: What happens when a baseball play-by-play announcer becomes a blow-by-blow announcer
When the benches empty at a baseball game, it’s usually much ado about nothing.
Players act tough, but usually just yell at each other. Players find a friendly foe on the other team, you grab each other, everyone calms down, no punches are thrown, and then the game continues.
But sometimes baseball truly becomes boxing and it becomes challenging for the broadcasters of the game.
That was the focus of this week’s “Crafting the Call” episode on YouTube.
Here’s a short clip from the start of the episode:
Crafting the Call is a YouTube series that I developed along with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. Each week, we examine different aspects of baseball play-by-play announcing, offering our perspective as working professionals for fans and advice for fellow broadcasters. To help support our work, subscribe, like, comment, or send us a suggestion for a future episode.
I’ve called two real brawls in my career. In 2013, the Memphis Redbirds and the Albuquerque Isotopes. The next year, the Isotopes and the Reno Aces. Both involved multiple people getting seriously injured and careers getting altered.
The other famous fights we watched and analyzed this week:
“Down goes Anderson! Down goes Anderson!” When Tom Hamilton did a sensational impersonation of Howard Cosell.
Will Clark vs the entire Cardinals infield.
Two batters in the box swinging and sheer chaos ensues.
George Brett vs. Graig Nettles in the playoffs.
Eric Davis vs. Ray Knight.
“It appears cooler heads will prevail.” My famous last words before all hell broke loose between the Albuquerque Isotopes and Memphis Redbirds in 2013.
Padres vs Braves in 1984, the fight that wouldn’t end.
“It’s no longer funny,” were the famous words of Pete Van Wieren from the ugly Padres-Braves fight in 1984 that just kept going and going and going. Here’s a link to a comprehensive recap of that fight from the SABR Project.
Near the end of the episode, Jesse and I discussed why fights are so much more rare these days. My list of reasons why:
Hard slides have been legislated out of the game on the bases.
Players are no longer on edge from taking steroids.
MLB has issued harsher fines and suspensions that players know better.
Here’s a link to the entire episode:
👋 New to this Newsletter? Hi, I’m Josh, a former newspaper reporter turned baseball play-by-play announcer. I write about baseball, but it’s rarely about the actual games. I like to reflect on events from the past, look ahead to the future, and write about the intersection of sports and life. I also post links to my other side projects, such as “Crafting the Call” on YouTube. Subscribe to this Newsletter to ensure you don’t miss a post. It’s free, but tips are welcome 👋
In my previous career as a newspaper reporter, I covered a decent number of on-field fights.
The most memorable was on Sept. 13, 2004, when the Texas Rangers bullpen got into an altercation with Oakland A’s fans at the Coliseum. Pitcher Frank Francisco ran from the dugout to the bullpen and tossed the ballboy’s chair into the crowd that bloodied the nose of a woman.
I remember the skirmish occurred right on deadline. We didn’t get many details into the early print editions. But we got a few more for the late deadline and I was part of The Oakland Tribune’s team coverage over the next few days with the City Desk.
Francisco was suspended for the final three weeks of the 2004 season, then missed the following season due to an injury. He was forced to undergo anger management classes and a work program. The lawsuit was settled out of court. Francisco went on to pitch 10 years in the majors.
One last story about fights.
We didn’t use the clip in the YouTube episode of the famous Rougned Odor punch that decked Jose Bautista in the 2016 playoffs because we already had enough similar fights.
But you might be curious to know a well-known artist in Texas named Juan Velazquez spray painted an enormous 55x14 foot mural in Arlington of the punch. Initially, the Arlington City Council said the mural violated city codes and needed to be removed.
Then the mayor or Arlington got involved and said the mural could remain.
Maybe there aren’t as many baseball brawls because players don’t want to end up on the mural outside a Taco Shop.