Merely a day after a massive brawl erupted in only the second inning of a Double-A baseball game, the fight bug has struck again, with a twist. This time the Jupiter Hammerheads, Single-A affiliates of the Miami Marlins, and the Daytona Tortugas of the Cincinnati Reds organization got into an especially violent one — and on Camp Day at the ballpark, no less.
That’s right, the audience for this spectacle of hooliganism was largely made up of children from local summer camps, there to get a taste of grown-up sports. Well, the grown-ups did not put their best foot forward today. Sure, most of each roster is in their late teens to early 20s, but the coaches were involved, and Tortugas manager Eli Marrero seems to be the one who starts the violence in the midst of an argument with umpires.
According to Andy Slater, multiple coaches were injured in the brawl, with Hammerheads hitting coach Frank Moore getting what sounds like the worst of it. He “got surrounded by six of their guys … He just rolled up in the ground and took it,” according to a source of Slater’s. For their part, the kids in the stands seemed to be eating it up, hooting and hollering and carrying on. Which, I guess, makes them no better or worse than an adult crowd at a baseball game.
(H/t Deadspin)
