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Baseball fans at Chase Field got to see a rare event Saturday night — a benches-clearing brawl in which the players actually brawled.
Canada and Mexico were facing off in pool play in the World Baseball Classic, when an apparent misunderstanding of the rules led to the fight.
In the case of a tie in pool play, a team’s run differential would decide who moves on to the next round — so Canadian Chris Robinson bunted for a single with a 9-3 lead, in an attempt to put more runs on the board.
It was wishful thinking, because neither team would end up advancing to the next around, and a couple of the Mexican players were pissed about the bunt.
So, after a Canadian player was hit by a pitch, a brawl erupted.
Check out some of the footage below, including (in order) perhaps the most inclusive coverage of what happened from ESPN, then the MLB Network highlight, followed by a bootleg recording of how it went down on TV:
