MLB brawls tend to follow a fairly basic formula. If accuracy is a concern, the majority can’t even be called “brawls” as, even if the benches when bullpens clear, nothing more physical than an occasional shove will usually take place. Even when there’s an actual fight, it’s usually broken up fairly quickly and the two teams will do nothing more than stand around for several minutes while the umpires figure out what to do.
Sometimes, though, we get a brawl that does not follow the basic formula. That was the case in 1984, when the San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves had what would most accurately be described as a fight with some occasional baseball mixed in.
10 years earlier, on September 22, 1974, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals had a fight that was anything but ordinary. In fact, if video didn’t exist, anyone hearing stories about the brawl would probably have similar thoughts as when their grandparents tell them they used to walk barefoot to school every day, in the snow, uphill both ways.
While no video exists of your grandparents’ grueling daily walks to and from school, video exists of this fight.
But before seeing the video, we have to set the stage.
Main Characters
Generally speaking, when conflict emerges in a sporting event, the job of the officials is to calm things down. It would perhaps be presumptuous to say that umpire Shag Crawford was bad great at calming tense situations down. That said, one of MLB’s most notorious incidents happened right under his nose.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants met on August 22, 1965. In the third inning, Giants pitcher Juan Marichal (as a hitter) felt that a throw to the mound from Dodgers catcher Johnny Roseboro was too close to his head. After a brief exchange of words, Marichal struck Roseboro in the head with his bat.
Make no mistake, in no way are we blaming Crawford for what Marichal did there. That said, Marichal hitting Roseboro, as well as Roseboro’s brushback throw immediately before it, didn’t come out of nowhere.
To that point, Marichal had already knocked both Maury Wills and Ron Fairly down with close pitches while Sandy Koufax had thrown at Willie Mays (though Koufax’s pitch was largely seen as little more than a token gesture and was not particularly close to Mays). To reiterate, Crawford can’t be blamed for Marichal’s actions. But could he have done more to ease tensions? Probably.
Reliever Al Hrabosky broke into the Major Leagues with the Cardinals in 1970. He had a breakout season in 1973, posting a 2.09 ERA in 44 appearances over 56 innings while striking out 57 hitters. In 1974, the Cardinals called on Hrabosky even more. He got into 65 games and pitched 88.1 innings with 82 strikeouts. He finished fifth in National League Cy Young voting and 16th in the MVP race.
By 1974, Hrabosky had also become one of baseball’s biggest characters. Let’s face it, “The Mad Hungarian” is not a nickname likely to be given to a boring person. Hrabosky’s Wikipedia page describes one of the pitcher’s most memorable traits.
“Hrabosky became a Cardinals fan favorite for his antics on the mound. When entering a game, he would turn his back to the batter, walk towards second base, vigorously rub the ball between his palms several times, take a deep breath, and pound the ball into his mitt. He then stormed back to the mound and stared down the batter…”
It also describes what led to the conflict that brings us all here.
“…although the home crowd would roar in delight, most batters were not fond of the routine.”
One player who did not care for Hrabosky’s antics was Chicago’s third baseman, Bill Madlock.
Madlock was an emerging star in 1974, hitting .313 en route to finishing third place in National League Rookie of the Year voting. He’d go on to win four batting titles in the National League, including in 1975 and 1976, when he hit .354 and .339, respectively.
Like Hrabosky, Madlock had a nickname not often given to mild-mannered folks, Mad Dog. It was well earned. Madlock was ejected 18 times in his playing career, including once by two different umpires.
The Situation
Chicago and St. Louis came into the late-September series in dramatically different positions in the standings. The Cubs were in the final stages of a bad season. They would ultimately finish 66-96, last place in the National League East.
The Cardinals meanwhile, were in a pennant race with the Pittsburgh Pirates. St. Louis entered the series with Chicago one-half game up on Pittsburgh. The Cardinals won the series opener 5-2 but were drubbed 19-4 by the cellar-dwelling Cubs in the second game of the series on Saturday. The Pirates matched the St. Louis results on both days. So, heading into Sunday’s series finale, the Cardinals were still up by a half-game in the NL East.
Also, St. Louis would welcome Pittsburgh for a critical three-game series after the Cubs left town. With three big games coming, one might assume that the Cardinals would look beyond the game against Chicago.
During the game, though, the Cubs were hard to ignore.
The Game
Things went swimmingly for the Cardinals early. Chicago did draw first blood when Don Kessinger scored on an RBI single from José Cardenal in the top of the first inning. But catcher Ted Simmons hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to put St. Louis up 2-1. In the bottom of the third inning, Reggie Smith put the Cardinals up 3-1 with an RBI triple, then scored on a sacrifice fly from Simmons to give his team a 4-1 lead.
That’s where the score remained until the sixth inning. Rick Monday drove in two runs with a one-out single. Billy Grabarkewitz then scored the tying run on what should have been an RBI groundout from Kessinger — but Kessinger reached on an error from Ted Sizemore. Following a double-steal from Monday and Kessinger, Madlock hit a sacrifice fly to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead.
St. Louis had runners on first and third with nobody out in the bottom half of the inning. While the threat was somewhat extinguished when Ken Reitz hit into a double play, the tying run did score.
Bob Gibson restored order for the Cardinals by retiring the Cubs in order in the top of the seventh inning. He was relieved by Hrabosky, who was perfect in the top of the eighth inning. The Cardinals, meanwhile, had runners reach base in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings but couldn’t get a runner across the plate.
So, heading into the ninth inning, the game remained tied 5-5. Hrabosky would come on for his second inning of work.
The first man he’d face? Madlock.
Mad Dog vs. Mad Hungarian
Richard Dozer of the Chicago Tribune detailed what transpired between Hrabosky and Madlock in his writeup of the game.
“The whole fracas was incited by Al Hrabosky, the chunky St. Louis relief pitcher whose antagonizing habit of turning his back to leave the batter waiting on a ‘long count’ has made him infamous almost overnight,” Dozer wrote, (h/t: Al Yellon, BleedCubbieBlue.com). “The Cubs plan here was to stall right along with him, and Madlock, who led off the ninth, retreated for a sticky rag to rub pine tar on his bat.”
That’s what happened.
When Madlock went back to the on-deck circle, he was followed by Crawford. Madlock, though, didn’t break stride. The argument was continued by Cubs manager Jim Marshall and Cardenal, the on-deck hitter, who both followed Crawford back to the plate.
Then, despite Marshall and Cardenal continuing to argue with Crawford near home and the actual hitter, Madlock, nowhere in sight, Crawford gestured for the game to continue. Hrabosky obliged and threw an unchallenged first pitch, which Crawford called a strike.
Marshall then went to the other side of the plate, walking directly in front of Simmons. Madlock, meanwhile, ran back to the batter’s box, cutting in front of Cardenal. With both Cubs standing in the right-handed batter’s box, Hrabosky threw his next pitch, which brushed Madlock back. Then, after a few words were exchanged, Simmons threw a punch at Madlock. The two were quickly separated but Simmons wasn’t done. He then ran behind Crawford and threw another punch, this time at Cardenal.
Unsurprisingly, the benches cleared. As Dusty Rhodes would one day say, “All Hell has broken loose. And hell brought with him a baseball bat.” Fortunately, nobody used a bat as a weapon here. But this wasn’t exactly a “Hold me back, hold me back, please hold me back” brawl.
Chicago first baseman Andre Thornton quickly joined the melee. In a move that Candy Maldonado would emulate 14 years later in the same stadium, Thornton unleashed a leaping attack, on Simmons, knocking the future Hall of Fame catcher down.
Things would eventually de-escalate. But it took a while.
Rest of game
One ejection came out of the entire incident — Marshall.
“Marshall was banished as the aftermath of the scrap, only because he apparently challenged Crawford to throw Simmons out of the game,” Dozer wrote (h/t: Yellon).
Dozer then quoted Marshall, saying, “That’s what really got me tossed out, because I had some choice words for him along with it.”
Hrabosky retired the Cubs in order, striking out Madlock and Dave LaRoche, with Cardenal popping up to the catcher in between the two strikeouts. The Cardinals won the game in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out RBI single from Simmons, which scored Lou Brock.
The win, coupled with a Pittsburgh loss to the New York Mets, gave St. Louis a 1.5-game lead in the NL East.
End of season
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the rest of the season didn’t go too well. The Pirates won the first two games of the ensuing series to take a half-game lead in the division. St. Louis won the finale, then took two of three from the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Pittsburgh won three of four from the Mets at Shea Stadium, leaving the two teams even heading into the final three games. For the Cardinals, those games would come on the road against the Montreal Expos. The Pirates would be at home — against the Cubs.
St. Louis and Pittsburgh both won their series openers. Both games seemed to be going well for the Cardinals the following day but a pair of two-run homers sent St. Louis down. The Cardinals carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning in Montreal while Pittsburgh went into the bottom of the eighth inning against Chicago trailing 5-4. The Expos took a 3-2 lead over the Cardinals on a two-run home run from Mike Jorgensen while the Pirates went up 6-5 thanks on the Cubs to a two-run homer from from Bob Robertson. Both games finished with those final scores.
Now down one game with one to play, the Cardinals needed a win and some help. They got neither. Though to be fair, St. Louis didn’t lose on the season’s final day. The Cardinals and Expos rained out in Montreal. If the Cubs could beat the Pirates, the Cardinals would play a make-up game in Montreal with a chance to force a one-game tiebreaker for the NL East crown. It never got that far.
The Cubs took a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning, and while the Pirates scored a run in the third in and another in the fifth, Chicago carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. Pittsburgh got one of those runs back on an RBI groundout from Dave Parker, bringing Robertson to the plate with two outs and the tying run on third base. St. Louis appeared to get the necessary help when Rick Reuschel struck Robertson out. The problem? It was a passed ball. Manny Sanguillén came home to score the tying run, while Robertson actually ended up on second base.
Pittsburgh couldn’t win it in the bottom of the ninth inning but had no issues winning one inning later. The Pirates loaded the bases with one out. Sanguillén hit a slow roller to third base, which Madlock couldn’t field. Al Oliver came in with the running run.
St. Louis now had no reason to make up the rained-out game. At 86-75, the Cardinals could not catch the 88-74 Pirates, who won all three games in the final series by a single run.
So, even if Madlock and the Cubs couldn’t overcome the frustration of Hrabosky’s pre-pitch routines, they did have a strong hand in keeping Hrabosky — and the rest of his teammates — out of the playoffs.
Sources
- Al Hrabosky Wikipedia
- BleedCubbieBlue.com
- Video Credit: Danny Boi on YouTube
- Video Credit: MLB on YouTube
- Video/Photo Credit: Courtside Tweets on YouTube