Milwaukee Brewers: RetroBrawl 7/22/95 at Chicago

In 1995, the Chicago White Sox stumbled badly out of the gate at the start of the 1995 season, fired their manager, replaced him with Terry Bevington, and floundered near the bottom of the standings. The 1995 Milwaukee Brewers were just as bad. Lead by manager Phil Garner, the Brewers were a hodge podge of odd veterans, mediocre prospects, and a woeful pitching staff. These two teams met on a fateful July evening in Chicago, and the following events transpired.

0:01

Brewers reliever Graeme Lloyd tosses a ball inside to Tim Raines. White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen is leaning too far off the bag at second. Milwaukee Brewers catcher Mike Matheny sends the ball down to second, but Guillen makes a break for third. He slides in safely.

0:07

Guillen shoves Brewers third baseman Jeff Cirillo and then checks himself for wounds. Cirillo really wasn’t overly aggressive with the tag, but he did appear to stumble into Guillen. The White Sox shorstop and Cirillo exchange words, but it appears that cooler heads will prevail…unless…

0:11

White Sox manager Terry Bevington scurries out of the dugout to see what the fuss is about.

0:19

First baseman Kevin Seitzer has a few choice words for Bevington, prompting Milwaukee Brewers manager Phil Garner to break into a full sprint to see what’s going on. The umpires manage to get in the middle, but shouty words are again exchanged.

0:27

Bevington with a finger point at an off-camera Brewer. Garner doesn’t like that. The two come together, and by ‘come together’, I mean grab each others shirts and yell. It’s on. Benches quickly empty as the two managers start to claw each other’s eyes out. It’s impossible to tell if punches are thrown at the center of the pile, but faces are clearly reddened.

0:39

Mediocre Brewers starting pitcher Brian Givens wants a PIECE of someone for….reasons. It’s hard to tell if he’s trying to throw a bunch or attack Bevington with freestyle swimming.

0:53

After a great deal of general pushing and shoving, Bevington is separated from the pile by a mixture of White Sox and Brewers.

1:09

It takes a phalanx of players to restrain Bevington, but Phil Garner is held back by White Sox third base coach Doug Mansolino tugging at his shirt.

1:19

Bevington is allowed to walk around unescorted and appears ready to shoulder tackle Garner as soon as he sees an opening. He looks legitimately unbalanced, and this is before he signaled for a relief pitcher without having anyone throwing in the bullpen. It all makes sense now.

1:28

Garner has a word with the umpire, while Bevington continues to scowl. Order is restored for the most part. Not the most exciting scrap in Brewers history, but overall wildly entertaining because it features two managers getting into it.

Next: What Happened Between The Mariners & Brewers on 6/30/90?

The fact that everyone stayed in he game is amazing. Bevington, Garner, Cirillo and Guillen all stayed in the game. Even Givens walked away unpunished. These days, If a manager even looks at an umpire funny, he gets tossed. Here we have two managers inciting the benches to clear, and both continued to manage their teams.