The Greatest Baseball Fight Ever

I can't believe I forgot all about this.

On this day in 1988 fans were witness to arguably the greatest fight to have ever occurred on a Baseball field. It was a rough and tumble affair that included grand theft, punches thrown to and fro, and a Baseball thrown right at the side of the Philly Phanatic.

That's right, folks!

The fight I speak of involved the weird and silly mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies and his nemesis for the evening was soon-to-be World Series Championship manager Tommy Lasorda.

Before I direct you towards a video -- that is a must watch -- I thought I would share a quote from Lasorda that I came across in a story by Gemma Kaneko at Cut4:

"I was always upset about him always taking my shirt and putting it on some dummy and then running over it. I didn't particularly like that, and I told him. I said, 'I don't want you to do that anymore.' The next time I saw him he still put my shirt on, so I went after him and I bopped him down a little bit. And I said, 'If there weren't all these people here I'd really rip ya.'"

I think this is a lesson to all of us. Never get on Tommy's bad side.

On another note, the Lasorda uniform you see being held by the Phanatic was given to him by Steve Sax, Tommy's second baseman. Apparently, the entire team was in on the joke and found this interaction to be hilarious.

BTW, I also have a quote from Dave Raymond -- the gent who plays the Phanatic, via Patrick Hruby at ESPN:

Two things pissed Dave Raymond off -- one, the Dodgers beat the Phillies; two, Tommy was really a Philly guy, but he shed his skin to be Mr. Los Angeles. He had pictures with Frank Sinatra on his wall. Everyone hated that. The Phanatic called him out on that stuff. And Tommy could be phony.
...
"After Tommy attacked me [in 1988], the next inning I got on top of the Phillies' dugout. I had the Tommy doll in one hand, a pizza in the other. I'm stuffing his face with pizza, then smacking him. … The next day, I'm getting calls from the L.A. media. Tommy attacked me in the papers! Said I was bad for kids! 

"I didn't want to get in a war of words. The next time the Dodgers came in, I sent him a pasta dinner from a favorite place and a note that said, 'I'm sorry.' I went down to see him after the game. I asked him if he got the dinner. 

He said, 'Yeah. The sauce was overdone. Anything else?'"

Now watch it below. BTW, the best part might be the commentary and the laughter.  Also, is the broadcaster we hear Don Drysdale? If you happen to know please pass that information along.

Video Link: