Brawl in Chinese Baseball League foreshadows another hurdle for MLB to consider
- Bench-clearing brawl sees upwards of 30 people huddle together for several minutes
So much for social distancing.
The Chinese Professional Baseball League this week became the first major league to open its baseball season during the coronavirus pandemic. The CPBL, based in Taiwan, took precautions like eliminating fans from the stadium, imposing face-mask regulations on team staff and upholding normal social-distancing guidelines in the dugouts.
But the CPBL did not anticipate a bench-clearing brawl like the one that took place between the Fubon Guardians and Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday night in Taiwan. It was a rare situation for the league, but it underscored the coronavirus-related problems that tempers boiling could bring.
Fubon Guardians right-hander Henry Sosa, former MLB pitcher for the Houston Astros, threw four fastballs inside to Rakuten Monkeys second baseman Kuo Yen-wen in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game. The last of those four heaters drilled Kuo near his hip area and the Monkeys and Guardians stormed out of their dugouts for a brief bench-clearing brawl in the centre of the diamond.
“For our international viewers, you need to understand that this never really happens in the CPBL,” an English-speaking broadcaster calling the game said on Eleven Sports Taiwan. “It’s usually a very conservative league. They don’t even argue balls or strikes or outs very often.”