A massive brawl broke out between the Fort Wayne TinCaps (San Diego Padres’ High-A affiliate) and South Bend Cubs (Chicago Cubs’ High-A affiliate) on Tuesday night at Four Winds Field in South Bend, IN.
The details and specifics are murky, because there was so much happening in this brawl, so fast. But there were clearly *a lot* of punches thrown, and there was even a baseball thrown during the brawl. A Fort Wayne player threw the baseball in the skirmish, and actually (accidentally) hit his teammate in the head. Once the baseball was thrown, the brawl really got chaotic.
Holy crap! These two teams still have to play five more games against each other this week. And I only put up about half of the fight pic.twitter.com/eIpdFW5Ek8
— Todd ⚾️🐻 (@CubsCentral08) May 26, 2021
No words. pic.twitter.com/bVs7Tq7ZAX
— Max Thoma (@MaxThoma) May 26, 2021
Fort Wayne batter said something to Brandon Hughes after striking out, Cubs catcher Jake Washer told him to go back to the dugout. Batter threw the first punch and then all hell broke loose.
— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) May 26, 2021
Holy cow, the brawl in South Bend was crazy. Tensions were brewing from minutes earlier when a Fort Wayne player said, something, to Delvin Zinn. After a Brandon Hughes strikeout, Jake Washer and FW batter chirped. Then, total chaos. At one point, a baseball thrown by FW.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) May 26, 2021
The league office is going to have to figure out: what was said to Delvin, what was said between Washer and Melean, who threw the gd baseball (and this should be the longest suspension) and who most actively threw punches. https://t.co/KUzCSLFc6t
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) May 26, 2021
It appears that South Bend pitcher Brandon Hughes, catcher Jake Washer, and manager Michael Ryan were ejected, as well as Fort Wayne second baseman Kelvin Melean.
That seems incredibly light on ejections, but again- the scene was so out of hand that it was surely difficult for umpires to figure out who should get tossed. But there needs to be a thorough investigation into the matter, and especially to identify the player that fired a baseball into the crowd. That one is just especially unacceptable and should result in a very lengthy suspension.
The game was wild too. South Bend trailed 7-0 entering the sixth inning, and came back to win 12-10. Oh, and these teams still face each other *five more times* this week. Tuesday night was Game 1 of a six-game series.