You know the Chicago Way, right? Not surprisingly, it seems Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen does. Over the weekend, Oz delivered a new edict to opposing pitchers: hit one of his guys, he'll hit two of yours.
This is mostly a case of Ozzie being Ozzie, as most major league managers will back up their players by retaliating for hit batsmen. Still, it's not often that a skipper will actually articulate his plans for revenge (much less double the ante), so not surprisingly, Guillen's comments have gotten the attention of MLB's disciplinarians. And of course Ozzie's got our attention (we love to watch dude's pound each other in the backside), so we looked back on Baseball's 5 Greatest Retaliations...
5. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES VS. L.A. DODGERS, 2008
• After the Phillies' Brett Myers threw behind Manny Ramirez in Game 2 of the NLCS, L.A.'s Hiroki Kuroda buzzed Philly's Shane Victorino in Game 3 setting off an epic punchless baseball fight. Funny how Manny always seems to be successfully restrained by his teammates.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. TAMPA BAY DEVIL RAYS vs. BOSTON RED SOX, 2006
• Notorious punk Julian Tavarez capped a long-simmering D-Rays/Sox feud with a sucker punch to Joey Gathright in an '06 Spring Training game. For two years the teams had exchanged purpose pitches, starting with Tampa hurler Scott Kazmir, who plunked Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar in September 2004, just before Boston went on their historic World Series run. Tavarez received a 10-game suspension for his cheap shot on Gathright; the Rays would gain a measure of revenge two years later when they bounced a Tavarez-less Sox squad from the 2008 playoffs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. NEW YORK YANKEES vs. TAMPA BAY RAYS, 2008
• Upset that he was given a girls' name the Rays had knocked out a Yankees reserve catcher on a collision at home a few days before, Shelley Duncan slid into second with his spikes high in retaliation, spiking Akinori Iwamura setting off a bench clearing brawl. The Rays went to the World Series that year; Shelley is, sadly, still saddled with a chick's name.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. NEW YORK GIANTS vs. BROOKLYN DODGERS, 1955
• Former teammates (as seen above), Jackie Robinson (left) and Sal Maglie (center) were playing for crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, respectively, in 1955 when they set off one of the great series of retaliations in baseball history. Tired of Maglie's brushback pitches, Robinson attempted to engage the Giants pitcher through a classic retaliatory maneuver: forcing the pitcher to cover first by bunting a ball to the first baseman and steamrolling said hurler at the bag. Problem was, when Robinson attempted the ploy, Maglie failed to cover first and Robinson instead ran over Giants first baseman Davey Williams. The next inning Williams' teammate Alvin Dark got his revenge by turning a stand-up double into a run-over-the-third-baseman (who just happened to be Robinson) triple.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. DOCK ELLIS vs. THE CINCINNATI REDS, 1974
• It was more a pre-emptive retaliation, but Dock Ellis is such a shit-kicking badass he gets the no. 1 spot nonetheless. On May 1, 1974 in an attempt to inspire his teammates to his level of badassedness, Ellis began a game against the Reds by attempting to hit every Cincinnati hitter he faced. He got the first three (including future Hall of Famers Pete Rose and Joe Morgan), before the cleanup hitter was able to dodge his attempts and work out a walk. Ellis then tossed two balls at Johnny Bench's head before his manager removed him from the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BONUS WORST RETALIATION: SHAWN ESTES AND SEAN TRACEY (TIE)
• In 2002, Estes was a new member of the New York Mets and charged with retaliating against Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens for a beanball and broken bat Clemens had directed at Mets catcher Mike Piazza two years before. Estes earned an epic fail from Clemens-haters with a pitch that went behind Roger's back. Tracey earned his own fail (not to mention a public humiliation) when he was ordered by Ozzie Guillen to hit Hank Blalock during a 2006 Spring Training game. Tracey didn't have the heart (or possibly aim) to go through with the request, and ended up being publicly berated by Guillen and later demoted to the minors.
