MLB: Top 5 Baseball Brawls Last 20 Years

May 15, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers clear the benches in the eighth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Texas won 7-6. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
May 15, 2016; Arlington, TX, USA; Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers clear the benches in the eighth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington. Texas won 7-6. Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
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Oct 7, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; The Chicago Cubs bullpen runs in as the benches clear after Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta (49) was hit by a Pittsburgh Pirates pitch during the seventh inning in the National League Wild Card playoff baseball game at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Baseball doesn’t give us fights all that often, but when they happen, they’re certainly memorable. Here are the top five brawls over the last twenty years in the MLB.

Ever since Rougned Odor of the Texas Rangers delivered one of the cleanest punches in baseball history on Sunday, it’s drawn major publicity to the MLB. Whether it’s for better or for worse, people are talking about it. While Odor gave Jose Bautista a really good shot, it wasn’t a great baseball brawl.

Not many punches were thrown after the one on Bautista and Adrian Beltre, who was on the opposing team, was holding up Joey Bats making sure he didn’t fall down like a ton of bricks because he was out on his feet – these things don’t happen in a good old fashioned brawl.

You know it’s a good one when an altercation spills into the dugout, or when there’s five or six separate fights all happening at once. The real tell tale sign of a good brawl is when you think it’s finally over but then the camera shifts to another two players going at it, and the whole situation is re-ignited.

Over the past twenty year’s there have been some epic throw downs between players, coaches and sometimes fans. These things don’t happen often in baseball, but when they do, they need to be analyzed and slideshows need to be made.

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