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Blue Jays-Rangers brawl shows MLB can't legislate emotions on the field

Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports9 a.m. EDT May 16, 2016

The Blue Jays and Rangers brawled in the eighth inning of their game on Sunday after Jose Bautista went in to second base hard on a takeout slide. Time_Sports

(Photo: Ronald Martinez, Getty Images)

Just when we thought baseball might be going soft, along comes Sunday’s old-fashioned brawl between the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers, sending a right cross that jolts our senses.

Well, maybe with not quite the same impact that Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor delivered to Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista’s jaw, thank goodness, as it makes us woozy just from watching replays of the punch heard ‘round the world of baseball.

Yes, and it comes seven months after that bat flip, with the Rangers letting us know they certainly haven’t forgotten about Bautista’s demonstrative celebration in their emotional American League Division Series last October.

The Rangers, who have played seven games against the Blue Jays this year, waited until Bautista’s final at-bat against them this season to send that purpose pitch.

It was delivered by a relief pitcher, Matt Bush, who was was called up just three days ago, an encouraging chapter after the former No. 1 pick spent nearly 3 ½ years in prison for hitting a motorcyclist while driving intoxicated.

The Rangers can deny it all they want, but the pitch was on purpose, a 96-mph heater right into the rib cage, that was deflected by Bautista’s elbow. We don’t know if Bush was ordered to hit Bautista, or simply wanted to endear himself to his new teammates, but this wasn’t a pitch that simply got away.

“It was gutless,’’ Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, still livid, told reporters after the game. “We’ve played (the Rangers) seven games…the other 29 teams, if they have an issue with you, they come at you right away.’’

The Rangers waited, and waited, likely intentionally, knowing that every time Bautista stepped to the plate, he would wonder if this were the pitch that was heading his way. The Rangers never publicly talked about it this year, but they were always going to get their revenge, believing that Bautista disrespected them with that bat flip following a Game 5 home run that ended their season and vaulted Toronto into the AL Championship Series.

It set off a winter of debate and reflection and even last week, Commissioner Rob Manfred brought it up, saying that he condoned it, actually, kind of liking it.

“Let me put it this way,’’ Manfred said, “Do I want to see 25 of those bat flips in every series? No. Do I understand how the bat flip happened in that particular inning, and in that particular game, I do understand it.

“And I think it probably is a good thing for the game.’’

GALLERY: TENSIONS BOIL IN RANGERS-BLUE JAYS GAME

Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays tussle during the eighth inningof a baseball game in Arlington, Texas. LM Otero, AP

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Rangers-Blue Jays tension boils over in brawl

Nothing personal, commissioner, but the Rangers beg to differ.

“I didn’t really think it would cross their mind to do something like that,’’ Bautista somehow said with a straight face, “but I guess it shows a little bit of their colors. It shows at least the lack of leadership they have over there when it comes to playing baseball the right way.’’

Bautista, furious, slowly went to first base, but he was going to make sure someone paid the price. So when Justin Smoak grounded to third baseman Adrian Beltre, Bautista slid into Odor with all of his might.

“Baseball plays are supposed to be taken care of by baseball plays,’’ Bautista said. “I have a hard slide at second base. I could have injured him. I chose not to….tried to send a message that I didn’t appreciate getting hit.’’

A year ago, we would have called it an aggressive, hard-nosed slide.

This season, with the new slide rule at second base, it’s called an illegal slide.

The slide was late, Odor deftly stepping out of harm’s way but throwing wildly to first base. No matter. In 2016, it’s an automatic double play.

Odor once slid so late into second during his first professional season with Spokane in 2011, it sparked a fracas that resulted in him taking on virtually the entire Vancouver Canadians team. This time, on the other end of the exchange, he wasn’t going to let Bautista sidle back to the dugout.

Bautista yelled back.

Odor reared back, and fired the best right cross we may have seen since the days of Marvin Hagler.

Bautista’s helmet and sunglasses flew off his face. His head, somehow, stayed on.

“He got me pretty good,’’ Bautista said, “so I have to give him that.’’

In a matter of seconds, both teams were on the field throwing punches, managers screaming at one another, and Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre holding onto Bautista, either to keep him calm or to prevent him from falling.

“It takes a bigger man,’’ Bautista said, “to knock me down.’’

It’s going to take a really big man, if not a crazed one, to ever think about taking on Odor again after that punch.

The Rangers wisely prevented Odor from talking to reporters after the game. He’ll have plenty of explaining to do himself when the MLB police come calling, and hand him a suspension that could last perhaps as long as 10 days.

Certainly, there will be plenty of suspensions in this aftermath, with eight players, coaches and managers being ejected. Gibbons will definitely be suspended simply for returning to the field after he was ejected earlier in the game, a no-no in baseball, as Bryce Harper found out last week.

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Yet, when it was over, Rangers manager Jeff Banister seemed almost proud of everyone going all old-school, wondering if this will now put a stop to any notion that baseball has gotten too passive with their new rule changes.

“I think it’s just two hard-nosed ballclubs that play the game of baseball,’’ Banister said in his post-game press conference. “They play hard. We play hard. They got to do what they do. I didn’t think it was wrong. …

“I take offense to everyone that (thinks) this isn’t a game that should be played hard and with intensity.’’

The shame in all of this is that these two teams won’t see one another again until next year, unless, of course, they happen to meet in the playoffs.

Then again, maybe the bigger shame is that such intensity is so rare. . There’s nothing wrong with purpose pitches, particularly when not thrown at the hitter’s head. There’s also nothing wrong with aggressive slides, even angry slides, which Bautista correctly did before the new rule change.

The only clear-cut wrong was Odor’s punch. Otherwise, it was actually nice to see fiery emotion back on public display, for everyone to interpret their own way.

“I think this generation of players, just like the generations before, are going to define what the unwritten rules of the game are on the field,’’ Manfred said last week. “We set the written ones, but what is acceptable within those boundaries, players have always determined that.

“I think this generation should have the right to do that.’’

They expressed those rights Sunday, and you know something - save for one devastating right cross, there was absolutely nothing wrong about it.