Canada, Mexico Come To Blows During World Baseball Classic

A simple misunderstanding led to this basebrawl between North American rivals.

1. It all started with a ball in the back, retaliation for the previous batter bunting with a six-run lead.

2. In fact, Mexico third baseman Luis Cruz called for the beaning after the bunt occurred.

Cruz interpreted the bunt as a display of poor sportsmanship by a team with a six-run lead, but in World Baseball Classic pool play, each team actually needs to score as many runs as possible, to avoid potential tiebreakers later on.

Source: assets.sbnation.com

3. The benches then cleared almost immediately after the beaning.

4. Both teams started throwing punches in all directions.

5. There was even a little bit of wrestling.

6. A Mexican fan then threw a bottle at the Canadian players.

7. That prompted a retaliation from Canada’s Cale Iorg.

8. A fan from that same area was ejected a couple of minutes after play resumed.

Video available at: http://buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com/video/2013/03/10/fanejection-624x350.mp4.

Via: Erik Malinowski

9. Here’s the full sequence, which ultimately delayed the game about 10 minutes before play continued.

Video available at: http://buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com/video/2013/03/10/WBCbrawl-624x350.mp4.

Via: Erik Malinowski