Baseball Brawls and Home Field Advantage

Originally posted on “Is It Sports?” I think the intro to the conversation says it all…

Ryan and I still do talk online a lot, but we’ve been very bad about posting the actual entertaining conversations we had, which was the original premise on our site to be begin with, and now we’re almost too much like Page 2. But here’s an entertaining one we had back on July 21 about brawls we’ve seen and ideas for extreme home field advantage. Enjoy! – Steve

Ryan: also, its like the Tigers vs. the world now… have they brawled with the Sox yet?
Steve: no which is weird
Steve: I need to go to a few more games
Steve: maybe they’ll play like an interleague makeup against the Phillies and brawl with them after a “message” pitch
Ryan: didn’t they couple years ago?
Steve: the Sox and Tigers did
Steve: 2000
Steve: Keith Foulke got a black eye
Ryan: I’m trying to think of when the Indians and Tigers would have went at it… I know this is the first the Twins and Tigers have had a problem
Steve: I’m sure they’ve fought before
Ryan: well yeah, but recently I mean
Ryan: and why fight the Royals? half the team wasn’t in the majors at the beginning of the year
Steve: I think half the team wasn’t born yet
Ryan: The Twins always have problems with the Indians
Ryan: but for as heated as the division has been b/w the Twins and Sox, there really have never been any major brawls
Steve: not really
Ryan: Just the Indians in my favorite on field incident ever
Steve: what was that?
Ryan: Hunter gets drilled, I think by Baez when he was still with them so he picks up the ball and fires his own 90 mph fastball right back at the pitcher
Steve: haha I remember that now
Ryan: “I was just giving him the ball back”
Steve: haha
Steve: those excuses are great
Steve: I saw an actual brawl once at a White Sox game
Ryan: against?
Steve: Blue Jays
Steve: Jack McDowell hit Mark Whitten with a pitch and he charged the mound
Ryan: you don’t see as many charges of the mound anymore
Steve: he got one good shot in on Black Jack, but then got thrown to the ground and pummeled by Carlton Fisk
Ryan: nice
Steve: that was the first time I ever saw the Sox win
Ryan: my brother was at the game where Chad Moeller went into the stands at Wrigley… he had to leave early though (class trip)
Ryan: The Twins have a 5 game series against Detroit this week
Steve: oh that sucks
Ryan: nobody wants that much time in Detroit
Steve: at least they aren’t staying in a hotel there
Ryan: where would they be staying?
Steve: suburbs
Ryan: oh.. ok
Steve: at least I’d think so
Steve: there really aren’t’ hotels downtown
Ryan: You could go to work, and their is Juan Rincon with a duffel bag sleeping in the elevator
Ryan: ok… so Jason Johnson was pissed because Nick Punto bunted in a run
Steve: that would be awesome
Steve: because our elevators are the big industrial ones that can carry a car or 2
Ryan: Shannon Stewart is in the break room, sleep in his eyes getting a cup of coffee
Steve: that would be an awesome home field advantage
Steve: make the visitors sleep in random places in the Pontiac Assembly Center
Ryan: Or at random office complexes
Steve: I’m surprised no one has tried to crash here
Ryan: Haha… Notre Dame is at Purdue… put the offense up at Alcoa and the Defense in the Caterpillar plant
Steve: that would be so cool
Steve: I’d love to see a season of that
Steve: see what the home win % would be
Ryan: they might have to do that in the NHL
Steve: like the Sox, housing projects across the street
Ryan: “Thank you for calling TCF… Yes! I think we can fit a couple Montreal Canadiens in the Foshay Tower”
Ryan: That’s an old building in Minneapolis, by the way
Steve: haha yeah I can see it
Steve: saves money
Ryan: There are widespread rumors that the Foshay is haunted too… which would add another element of suspense
Steve: nice
Steve: It can be the MLB’s, “Get a feel for the city” promotion
Ryan: Or, for the hockey, an outreach thing, get to know the players
Steve: reaching out to the kids in the projects
Ryan: “Daddy, who is the Russian guy sleeping on the couch?” “Oh, that’s Slava Kozlov, honey”