In case you’ve been asleep for the past 24 hours, you’re probably quite aware that Saturday night’s Chicago White Sox-Cleveland Guardians game saw a bench-clearing brawl, and that started with a rather remarkable punch from Cleveland’s José Ramírez.
After a head-first slide into second, Ramírez was unhappy with Chicago shortstop Tim Anderson for what he perceived as a hard tag and for standing over him on the base. That saw the two exchange words and they almost immediately squared up to fight, with the second base umpire clearing the way.
It was then that Ramírez delivered that devastating blow to Anderson’s face, knocking out the shortstop, and leading to a full-on brawl:
A lengthy brawl in Cleveland between the White Sox and Guardians.
Part 1: pic.twitter.com/WqzSMIsblh
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) August 6, 2023
Ramírez spoke about the incident following Saturday’s game. He was subsequently ejected but was in the lineup for Sunday’s series finale.
“I felt I was able to land one,” Ramírez said through a translator, via the Associated Press.
“He’s been disrespecting the game for a while,” Ramírez added. “When he does something like that on the bases, he can get somebody out of the game. So I was telling him to stop doing that. After he tapped me really hard, more than needed, he said he wanted to fight and I had to defend myself.”
Interestingly, Ramírez is placing the blame on Anderson for initiating the fight. Though, he certainly had no problems finishing it off. It certainly seems like this won’t be the last time we hear from these two.
[AP]
