First things first, NESN’s SportsDesk brilliantly opened its Red Sox recap this morning with this gorgeous bit, a rollickin’ montage of some past Sox-Rays donnybrooks:
Here’s the brawl itself. The weirdest thing comes at around :29–seeing someone wearing the number 7 just standing on the periphery of a brawl. That’s how you know Trot Nixon has left the building. If the Dirt Dog was still in the house, Jonny Gomes would likely still be combing the Fenway infield for his wisdom teeth. As it is, I’m actually surprised Nix didn’t drive to the Park and bound on the field in his civilian clothes, threatening to mop up the place with Carl Crawford.
Next, here’s that clip of Youk and Manny mixin’ it up, viewable on at least sixty million sites right now, but we figgered we’d post it here as well:
The team was tight-lipped about the Youk-Manny incident, and understandably so:
“I think that stays with the team,” captain Jason Varitek said.
Ramírez was a bit tardy getting to the bench-clearing brawl, not entering the fray until the bullpen residents had reached the mound, jogging out late with Bartolo Colon a few steps ahead of him.
Asked if that was part of the problem, Francona said, “I understand it was on TV. It was handled. We’ll move on. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”
The last–and best–words on the matter come from the Elf:
“I really didn’t see it,” Dustin Pedroia said. “We’re around each other a lot. But we love each other. We’re a team. We’ll be fine.”
Lastly, here’s the postgame commentary from Covelli and Tito, in which Francona utters the greatest line of the young season: “I think they were just exchanging some views on things.”
It’s a shame to see the Rays leave town, no?
