The Slanch Report

One of the great things about minor league baseball is the never-ending stream of great promotions. For the Modesto Nuts, a class A affiliate of the Rockies, they’ve made beers during the 5th inning of every game cost only $1. In terms of wacky promotions, this isn’t anywhere near the top but for the fans in attendance it was one of the better recent promotions.

You see, the fearsome Modesto Nuts were down 9-1 and looking for some fire, so their pitcher, Aneury Rodriguez, buried a 91 mph fastball into the ribs of one of the opposing Stockton Ports (even MORE fearsome!) who strangely took exception to that. Then on a potential double-play ball,

the hit batsman slid spikes up into second, had the second baseman fall on top of him and get all tangled up. One thing leads to another and then the two are throwing punches at one another. Of course, the dugouts empty after that point and the brawl is on. One of the Ports’ relievers had to be taken to the hospital where he had his two facial fractures looked at that should probably keep him out the rest of the season. All told, 8 players were ejected and it took nearly 50 minutes for order to be restored and the inning to finally end.

Fortunately for the crowd, this all took place during the 5th inning, meaning that for nearly an hour, as the two teams showed off their pugilistic abilities, the crowd was able to get totally hammered for cheap. Maybe that’s the reason this is our national pastime! If there is a better way to spend an afternoon, watching baseball, seeing a brawl, and getting drunk for under $10 than I’d like to find out about it.

h/t to Inside the Shell your one-stop for all Modesto Nuts stories