The Pitch That Emptied Both Benches

Pat Combs's fastball struck Dwight Gooden in the left knee in the fifth inning at Shea Stadium. Gooden charged the mound. The pitch's intent was never established in the record, but its consequence was immediate. Gooden and Combs wrestled to the ground, and the game stopped being a baseball game in the ordinary sense.

The pressure had been building in the innings before the charge. Gooden had already hit Dickie Thon and Tom Herr. Umpire Randy Marsh watched the collision and said, "It looked nasty out there." That was the operating rule of the afternoon: a hit batter answered by another hit batter, then answered again by a player leaving his position to settle the account.

Darren Daulton joined the fight. The reported sequence put him behind Gooden, where he landed several solid punches to Gooden's head. Then the benches came across. The fight became a free-for-all involving players from both clubs, and the fifth-inning delay reached 20 minutes. The field belonged to the ejections after that: four Phillies and three Mets were sent out.

The umpires' decision changed the personnel before it changed the score. The teams had to finish without seven players who had been part of the confrontation. The Mets still trailed and then scored four runs in the sixth inning, coming back to defeat Philadelphia, 5-4. The reports establish the sequence, not that the brawl caused the comeback.

The Thursday night game had drawn 39,240 people. By the end, the official residue was smaller and harder: seven ejections, a delayed fifth inning, and John Franco's 25th save as New York closed the game.