What started as a baseball game between the Single-A affiliates of the Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies turned into a royal rumble over the weekend.
The throwdown occurred in the third inning of a game between the Tampa Tarpons and Clearwater Threshers on Sunday when Tampa pitcher Alex Bustamante hit Clearwater’s Erick Brito with a pitch. That didn’t sit well with Threshers’ manager Marty Malloy, who was also serving as the third base coach, and the Clearwater skipper expressed his displeasure with the pitch by chirping at the Tarpons dugout.
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Malloy was ejected from the game and then started to walk toward home plate to talk with the umpire. As that was occurring members of the Clearwater team had come out and started yelling in the direction of the Tampa dugout, prompting Tampa pitching coach Gerardo Casadiego to run out to step in front of his catcher.
Video of the incident then shows Malloy walking towards Casadiego and exchanging words with him while Casadiego was holding back one of his players. As the conversation got more heated, Malloy took a swing at Casadiego knocking off his hat and prompting the Tampa coach to attempt to strike back.
Instead, Casadiego inadvertently hit a different player on Clearwater causing the tense situation to really boil over. The benches completely cleared and more pushing and shoving ensued.
A video from minor league baseball reporter John Brophy even showed Casadiego on the ground being attacked by a group of four Thresher players before another Thresher player came to his aid and separated the group. Casadiego was apparently struck in the teeth during the melee, according to Brophy.
Cooler heads eventually did prevail and the game was delayed 20 minutes because of the chaos and a number of players were ejected from the game. The Threshers won the game 12-3.
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