September 1, 2010 – With the Tigers in town and Joe Mauer and Jason Kubel hit by Tiger pitcher Phil Coke and Tiger catcher Avila being hit by Twins hurler Brian Duensing, it brings back memories of the big Twins/Tigers brawl of May 14, 1982. The Twins were in the midst of their worst season ever from a loss perspective as they would finish 1982 with a 60-102 record under manager Billy Gardner. When they arrived in Detroit, they were 2-10 in the month of May and they immediately proceeded to lose the first of a four game series 6-2 to Jack Morris on Thursday, May 13th and with that defeat they dropped into the cellar of the AL West Division where they would stay for the rest of the season.
The following day the Twins sent Pete Redfern (2-4) to the mound against Tigers starter Dan Petry (3-2). The Twins jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the second inning on a couple of singles, a walk and an error. The Tigers came back with one in the bottom of the third and held the Twins scoreless in the fourth. In their half of the fourth the Tigers catcher Lance Parrish doubled and was sacrificed to third by Lou Whitaker. Shortstop Mark DeJohn, who had a total of four hits in his 24 game major league career singled in Parrish to knot the game at 2-2. The next batter was outfielder Chet Lemon and Redfern hit him on the wrist, Lemon charged the mound and the battle ensued. The game was halted for 20 minutes as the umpires sorted things out. When the smoke cleared Lemon was ejected and Redfern had to leave the game with a spike wound to the right foot. Bobby Castillo replaced Redfern and retired the next two batters. The game remained scoreless through the ninth and went into extra innings. In the 10th inning Dave Rozema held the Twins scoreless and Ron Davis did the same to the Tigers in their home half of the 10th. Rozema then retired the Twins 1-2-3 in the 11th inning and Ron Davis took the mound in the bottom of the 11th. Allan Trammell flew out to center for the first out but Lynn Jones singled and then Davis brushed Tiger third baseman Enos Cabell back, words were exchanged and Cabell went after Davis. During the melee Tigers pitcher Dave Rozema suffered ligament damage to his left knee and was carried off the field on a stretcher and eventually required surgery. Twins players stated that Rozema hurt himself trying to kick Twins third baseman John Castino as you can see on the attached video (since taken down) but the Tigers claimed that Rozema hurt himself coming out of the dugout to participate in the brawl. Both Cabell and Davis were ejected and the Twins brought in Terry Felton to pitch. Felton dispatched Tiger Tom Brookens for the second out of the inning but Kirk Gibson hit a two run walk-off homer and the Tigers were the 6-4 victors. The Twins lost the next two games in Detroit, were swept in the four game series and won only one more game that month.
There was some video of the fight but MLB Advanced Media had it taken down. Towards the end of the video you could see Tiger pitcher Dave Rozema come flying in from the left hand side of the screen and try to kick Twins player John Castino. You can see a second short video with Tigers manager Sparky Anderson expressing his view of the situation by clicking here.
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8/30/1983 – With the Twins trailing the Tigers 4-3 in the top of the 8th inning at Tiger Stadium, Tiger pitcher Dan Petry hits Twins outfielder Gary Ward in the face with a fastball. Gary Gaetti was quoted as saying ” I’ve been hit in the head, but I’d never seen anything like that before. His face was broken”. Battered and bruised, Ward returns to the lineup just six days later and goes 4 for 4 against the Rangers at Arlington Stadium. But for the rest of the season Ward struggled mightily, hitting no home runs and driving in only seven runs in his 84 at bats. After the 1983 season ended the Twins traded Ward to the Texas Rangers.Then, one July night in Baltimore in 1984 Ward turned off all the lights in his hotel room after a game and told himself to get past the fear or his career was over. Ward went on to play for 8 more seasons in the big leagues.
