Darren O’Day’s Brawl Strategy: “Hug It Out”

Baseball “fights” are quite silly these days. Just the other day, seamheads celebrated the 22nd anniversary of the classic Nolan Ryan–Robin Ventura brawl:

Five years after that, there was the vicious Orioles-Yankees melee at Yankee Stadium:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/n0QlGsgNLIg[/youtube]

Now, though, these “fights” rarely amount to much more than a bunch of “animated standing around,” as this article in The Wall Street Journal explores. WSJ’s Brian Costa & Geoff Foster looked into all of the bench-clearing “incidents” since the start of 2014, and found that in the 32 “brawls,” just five total punches were thrown, ONE of which actually landed.

We O’s fans probably never wanted to see punches thrown (and landed, on both sides) more than when the Blue Jays & Royals mixed it up last weekend, but, of course, nothing really happened.

The best parts of the WSJ article though, are the quotes from Darren O’Day:

Orioles reliever Darren O’Day said teams’ relief corps are merely trying to stand up for their teammates. But the layout in some ballparks makes for an awkward scene.

When there is a single, shared stairwell through which pitchers exit the bullpens, pitchers from both teams merge politely into one line. “You’re running out of the bullpen with the guys you’re supposed to be angry with, and you’re all kind of filing through single file,” O’Day said, “and then you get out to the middle of the field and you’re acting tough.”

This fierce band of brothers will go to any length to defend a teammate’s honor, as long as they don’t trip and fall. O’Day recalled running down the bullpen stairs at Angel Stadium during one incident in 2008 and hearing another pitcher yell out, “Be careful on the steps!”

I’ve wondered about that in the past, and it’s nice to hear a player admit that yes, it’s awkward in places like Camden Yards, where the bullpens are emptying together, out of the same door.

O’Day goes on to give his own brawl strategy:

“I’ve been out on the field during a heated exchange between two other guys and I’m out there talking to my buddy who I played with the year before,” O’Day said. “Like, ‘Hey man, let’s just hug it out, me and you, if this thing goes south.’”

Darren O’Day – a hugger, not a brawler, despite his very 1930’s Irish-boxer sounding name (though, of course, as the between-innings trivia at OPACY reminds us from time to time, he’s not really Irish, nor is “O’Day” really his family’s original last name).