The bench-clearing brawl between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres on Thursday night was one of the more heated scrums in baseball history, but these all-out fights are nothing new to Red Sox fans.
The Yankees and Red Sox rivalry is not only one of the most famous, it is also one of the fiercest. From Jimmy Piersall fighting in the tunnel before the first pitch was even thrown with Yankees second baseman Billy Martin in 1952 to Pedro Martinez taking down Don Zimmer in the 2003 ALCS, the matchups are never short on passion or intensity.
The heated exchanges weren’t just limited to New York, however. In 2008, Boston center fielder Coco Crisp was hit by a pitch by Tampa Bay right-hander James Shields. Crisp took offense to the pitch and charged the mound, prompting both benches to clear. But perhaps the greatest example of protecting your pitcher came courtesy of Mo Vaughn, when all 230 pounds of the first baseman tackled George Bell after Bell went after Red Sox pitcher Aaron Sele.
