Rose vs Bochy. Luke Easter. Weaver in SF. Gibson. Billy vs Clint.
October 11th, 1980. During game 4 of the NLCS, Pete Rose of the Philadelphia Phillies violently laid out Bruce Bochy of the Houston Astros at homeplate. I thought it would be funny to make this little animated gif to capture the hit and the aftermath. If you wanna see video of the hit, you can watch it HERE. The collision comes about 3/4 into it but the entire video is worth watching as it documents the craziness of the series quite well.
While ole’ Boch looks like he got knocked senseless, something tells me his large sized head is capable of taking much more abuse than what Pete Rose’s forearm gave him.
.
Luke Easter played with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League in both 1949 & 1954. During Easter’s Baseball career he also played in the Negro Leagues with the Homestead Grays and with the Cleveland Indians in the Major Leagues. If you do some research on Easter you will see that he had quite the interesting Baseball career. This career lasted until he was 48 years old as a member of the Rochester Red Wings who were the AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles at that time.
To put some perspective on Luke Easter, in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract Bill James is quoted as saying “If you could clone him and bring him back, you’d have the greatest power hitter in baseball today, if not ever.” From everything I have ever read about him I don’t think I could disagree with that.
.
Buck Weaver was an infielder for the San Francisco Seals in 1911. Does that name sounds familiar? Well it should as Weaver was one of the 8 members of the 1919 Black Sox who were banned for life from Baseball. I had totally forgot that Weaver played on the Seals until recently when I cam across this image.
It may be totally irrelevant to this post but Weaver was played by John Cusack in the movie “Eight Men Out.” I only watch that movie every few years so I always forget who plays who. I’ll definitely remember who plays Weaver now due to the Seals connection.
.
I LOVE this photo. The legendary Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays on his way to rounding third base in full sprint. The advertisements on the Outfielder walls are awesome and adds to everything that is absolutely perfect about this photo.
.
1952. Yankee legend Billy Martin fighting Clint Courtney of the St. Louis Browns. Both Martin and Courtney LOVED to fight and were both small guys. So basically they were both fire bellied players with Napoleon Complex while on the Baseball field and I love that. Well it turns out this was not the last incident between these dudes. I grabbed this excerpt from Courtney’s WIKI page:
Nicknamed “Scrap Iron”, Courtney was frequently embroiled in fights. Two of his more celebrated brawls involved the Yankees. The first came in 1952, when he spiked Billy Martin and then slugged him when Martin hit Courtney between the eyes. A year later, he touched off a free-for-all by spiking Phil Rizzuto in trying to stretch a single into a double. Then Martin jumped on Courtney in a wild melee that produced a then American League record $850 in fines.The episode cost Courtney $250. Off the field, his temperament was reportedly more genial and affable.
We need more players like this in Baseball these days.
ninety feet of perfection. 
Man o Man what a series in that video you posted. I had totally forgotten about it.