The All Time Best Baseball Players In a BRAWL team

[deebro041]

George Bell(Blue Jays) was fun to watch at times charging the mound kung fu style.

[Wymers Auction]

Pedro Borbon Pitcher of the Big Red Machine. That guy was nuts and loved to fight.

[mr2686]

I'd like to add an honorary mention of Hank Bauer in the outfield.

[JimStinson]

Bauer WAS a tough guy, WW II , recieved 2 Bronze stars and 2 purple hearts. because of his facial features team mate Whitey Ford used to chide him that he fought the Japanese with shovels

With regards to Juan Marichal who started one of baseball's most famous brawls when he beat catcher Johnny Roseboro over the head with a baseball bat. One of the combatants told me what REALLY happened and in Juan's defense Roseboro was not exactly an innocent by stander. During one of Marichal's prior starts against the Dodgers he had thrown alot of pitches in close and beat them bad. So when he stepped up to the plate to hit , Roseboro "On purpose" threw the ball back to the pitcher so close to Marichal's head it almost nicked his ear. Marichal turned to complain to the ump and Roseboro said "Shut up and hit" to which Marichal complied and started hitting the closest round thing he could find which happened to be Roseboro's head

[Exhibitman]

Al Rosen. Rosen was the 1940 Florida state high school middleweight champion. When one of the Chicago White Sox called Rosen a Jew bastard he walked over to the dugout and asked whoever called him that name to come out. No one did.

[prewarsports]

Going back a ways, I would vote for Charlie Schmidt Detroit Catcher around the turn of the century. He used to entertain people by pounding nails into boards with his mangled and scarred fists and he also used to spar with Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson. If you had asked this question 100 years ago EVERY response would have been Schmidt hands down. He also beat the crap out of Ty Cobb once too! He was by far the toughest man to play before WW1.

Rhys Yeakley

[mschwade]

I won't go back very far... I'll take Kyle Farnsworth's crazy a$$ on the mound for me any day of the week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mt0_0k40t4

[Frozen in Time]

Yankee ex-marine Hank Bauer apparently never backed away from a fight - and had the nose to prove it.

[JimStinson]

No offense to Joe Louis but I think that in 1957 Mathews might have been able to take him one on one.
Mathews and Pete Whisenant were lifetime friends, all the way back to their days in the minors. Pete and I were friends for about the last 10 years of his life when he was living in Costa Rica. Both were drinking men. Pete asked me to call Mathews and try and convince him to accompany me on one of my visits. Mrs Mathews hated Pete. So I spoke with Eddie on the phone and he agreed. A couple days later he called back and said he couldn;t go and was instead going on a "cruise" , am sure his wife put the brakes on the trip as according to Pete "she ran the show" , Ironically it was during that cruise that Mathews had a freak accident when he slipped and fell in the water and was pinned between the ship and the pier , breaking his pelvis. he never fully recovered and by most accounts it was the accident that contributed to his death.
I knew Pete when he was in his 60's and he was intimidating and still loved to fight. We were sitting in a dive bar one day in Costa Rica and two big guys were in the booth behind us. Words were exchanged and Pete smiled at me casually and told me "I hope you can take at least one of them because a fight is about to break out" , Pete then stood up and walked over to the bar and shook hands with a guy that was well over 6 feet tall and maybe 250 pounds. He was slapping him on the back and buying him a beers, both of them were laughing like crazy leaving me sitting with the two hoods that were giving me the stare down. Pete came back and sat down and I told him it was a good time for him to run into an old friend like the big guy at the bar. Pete smiled and said "never saw him in my life, but I always make friends with the biggest guy in the bar just in case a fight breaks out"

[Bob Lemke]

For my money, I'd go with Clint Courtney at catcher. The "Toy Bulldog" fought one and all at the drop of the hat . . . and would knock your hat off if that's what it took to get the ball rolling.