Strap in, this is going to be a long one with how many players are mentioned. But this is one of my favorite sagas in baseball. There are many...
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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/JarJarBrinksSecurity on 2024-06-26 04:15:02+00:00.

Strap in, this is going to be a long one with how many players are mentioned. But this is one of my favorite sagas in baseball.

There are many great sports rivalries. Ohio State vs Michigan, Frazier vs Ali, Duke vs UNC. But among all sports, the rivalries of baseball have tradition and history behind them, making them way more intense. The Yankees and the Red Sox first met in 1903, the Dodgers and the Giants first met in 1889, & the White Sox and the Cubs first met in 1906. Every team has their 1 or 2 rivals they loathe. One of those rivalries, which has never seen the same spotlight, is between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates. And it all came to a head in 2019.

Let the Flames Begin

Back in the infancy of what is now the MLB, the Pittsburgh Alleghenies defeated the Cincinnati Red Stockings 10-9 in the first ever meeting between the two teams. Due to the amorphous nature of the early baseball leagues, the teams didn’t play each other from 1887 to 1890. But the teams have played uninterrupted since then.

There’s not much to speak of in terms of the rivalry until the 1970s when the 2 Hall of Fame stacked teams would frequently meet in postseason clashes. The first was in the 1970 National League Championship Series which the Reds won in a 3 game sweep. The next time would be 2 years later, once again in the NLCS where it was even more dramatic. In the final game of the 5 game series, the Reds were down by 2 and down to their final 3 outs. They ended up winning the game on a wild pitch with 2 outs, ending the Pirates World Series dreams. 1975 was similar to 1970, as the Reds swept the Pirates once again, going on to then win the World Series against the Red Sox. 1979 saw the Pirates gain one back, as they swept the Reds and went on to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World series.

The 80s were a down decade for both teams. But as fate would have it, they once again met in the 1990 NLCS. The Reds beat the Pirates in the series, 4 games to 2, and went on to sweep the Oakland A’s to win. And until 2013, there’s not much to talk about with these teams. They were placed into the same division, the newly formed NL Central, in 1993. But both teams saw a staggering amount of mediocrity. Bad management, bad ownership, players leaving town for better prospects, you name it. Despite typical rivalry games, the next time the teams saw a significant rivalry game was in the 2013 Wild Card game. The 2013 Pirates posted a pretty good record of 94-68 while the Reds snuck into the game due to a weak National League. The game saw the normally All-Star Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto completely melt down as the Pirates scored 5 runs in 4 innings while 40,000+ Pittsburgh fans mockingly chanted his name. The Pirates obviously won that game, but ended up losing to another divisional rival, the St. Louis Cardinals, in the National League Divisional Series. But once again, mediocrity struck for both teams, which honestly continues to this day, with both teams showing flashes of greatness but not being able to capitalize on it.

But why do these teams and their fans hate each other so much? This just seems like typical sports rivalry at this point.

This is Why

The cities of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh sort of have a rivalry outside of sports, but it all stems from sports. Only ~288 miles separate the once major American cities. Outside of baseball, the two cities saw short rivalries between their college football teams and their soccer teams, but most of the animosity comes from the professional football rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals. The football rivalry has seen some ugly moments which only fueled the animosity between the fans of the teams and the residents of the cities. With all of these factors together, anytime teams from Cincinnati and Pittsburgh meet up, there is bound to be some bad blood.

Pressure

It’s 2019 and both teams suck. The Reds haven’t had a winning season since 2013, while the Pirates had started declining in 2016. But the rivalry hadn’t slowed down at all.

On April 7, the Reds visited the Pirates for a four game series. In the 2nd inning of game four, newly signed Derek Dietrich of the Reds crushed a ball that landed in the Allegheny River. Dietrich, being the big personality that he is, stood still for a good amount of seconds and admired his home run. As he crossed home plate, Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli said something to him. Dietrich’s next time up, Pirates pitcher Chris Archer intentionally threw behind him.

In baseball, one of the ways teams retaliate for things is by the pitcher intentionally throwing at, sometimes hitting, the batter when they come up to bat. It’s a controversial move as it is dangerous.

The umpires immediately warned both teams, but Reds manager David Bell ran out onto the field to argue that Archer should be thrown out of the game for intentionally throwing at a player. And as is typical in baseball, the benches cleared and the players got in a big mass and stood around. This is pretty common for baseball “fights.” But most players aren’t Yasiel Puig.

Puig, who was also a recent acquisition for the Reds, had a reputation as a massive hot head. While everyone else stood around and yelled, Puig had to actually be held back by teammates. As it seemed like teams were going back to their benches, Puig broke out of the hold of a teammate and tried to swing at Cervelli, who had been yelling at him. But Puig was held back by another teammate. The whole “fight” can be seen here. In the aftermath, 5 players and Bell were ejected from the game with Archer receiving a 5 game suspension, Puig a 2 game suspension, and Bell a 1 game suspension.

The next couple of months would only serve to heighten the drama. On May 27, Dietrich was once again hit by a Pirates pitcher, but no words were exchanged. His next at-bat, Dietrich launched a home run and took his sweet time going around the bases. 2 days later, Reds Third Baseman Eugenio Suarez was hit by a pitch on the hand. Some words were exchanged between Suarez and the pitcher, but didn’t seem heated. Bell was once again ejected as he felt the Pirates pitcher should be thrown out for hitting Suarez. Outside of the teams, the Pirates announcers were equally as heated. One of the announcers, John Wehner, started suggesting that Dietrich’s grandfather would be embarrassed of him and would be rolling in his grave. Dietrich’s grandfather had actually been a coach in the Pirates organization for many years. But now, the teams wouldn’t see each other for 2 months. Surely things would settle by then, right?

Grudges

July 30. The Pirates quickly took control of the game, having 7 runs by the 5th inning. Meanwhile, the Reds seemed to be languishing at the plate, only scoring 2. In the 7th inning, Pirates pitcher Keone Kela threw at Dietrich’s head, which he later confirmed he did intentionally to “protect his teammates”. As is the rule and because some players were yelling at each other, warnings were issued to both teams. In between the innings, first baseman for the Reds, Joey Votto was seen arguing with Kela. The next time the Reds were up to bat, Puig had a pitch on the outside that the umpire called a strike. In anger and disbelief, Puig threw his helmet on the ground and stood off to the side for a bit while Bell argued with the umpire and was subsequently thrown out. In the top of the 9th on the first pitch, the Reds pitcher threw behind the batter and was thrown out of the game. Then out comes Amir Garrett to pitch for the Reds.

Here We Go Again

Similar to Puig, Garrett was known as a showboating, hot-head. As he takes the mound, he is visibly amped up. The umpire steps in to warn him about retaliating which Garrett seems to acquiesce to. Garrett then gave up even more runs which was accompanied by heckling from the Pirates dugout. Seemingly done with it, Garrett calls out the pitching coach and they converse for a bit with Garrett agitated and pointing at the Pirates dugout. As the coach turns to signal for a replacement pitcher, Garrett throws his glove on the ground and charges the Pirates dugout, immediately swinging, but missing, a Pirates player. There are many things that happen here. I highly recommend watching the video of the brawl and the breakdown by Jomboy to get the full picture, but I’m going to do my best to summarize the hectic events that ensue.

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