Home 
Baseball is not the fast-paced game that basketball is. Nor is it a contact sport like football. In spite of those qualities, it still has the reputation of being “America’s favorite pastime.”
Perhaps that’s because many baseball fans are absolutely crazy about their teams.
On May 15, 1894, the craziest baseball fans in the world assembled in Boston for a contest between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Beaneaters at South End Grounds. This particular game would turn out to be anything but routine, and in fact, would make history as the most expensive game ever played.
During the game, John McGraw of the Orioles got into a rift with Tommy Tucker of the Boston squad. Tucker had tried to slide into 3rd base when McGraw kicked him in the head trying to make the tag. What began as a scuffle between the two men quickly escalated into a bench-emptying brawl between every player on the field.
But the fans wanted some of the action, too!
In the stands behind right field, someone started a fire that quickly swept through the entire wooden stadium. The grandstands quickly incinerated beneath the feet of the fans who had gathered to watch a baseball game, but wound up watching a war.
When the fire became too much for the emergency response teams, the flames spread from the stadium to surrounding buildings. At the end of the ordeal, a grand total of 107 buildings in Boston caught fire!
Without a doubt, this incident goes down as one of the worst displays of sportsmanship in the history of the game.
That day, an entire city paid the price when a few grownups couldn’t reign in their anger.
Resource’s Origin:
Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters, and the Battle for the 1897 Pennant by Bill Felber and Edward Kennedy. University of Nebraska Press, 2007, Page 320.
Topics Illustrated Include:
Anger
Athlete
Baseball
Consequences
Destruction
Fighting
Fire
Self-Control
Sports
(Resource cataloged by David R Smith)
