Fighting Chance: 'A real Pier 6 brawl'
May 1964. The Mets were on the road against the Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium. A ninth inning home plate collision ended the game and started a bench-clearing brawl.
New York Mets third baseman Charley Smith led off the game by hitting a 3‐2 pitch into the left‐field bleachers to give the Mets an early 1-0 lead. Smith, who had joined the Mets 10 days earlier, had gone hitless in his first 26 at-bats with his new team.
In the home secondary Milwaukee County Stadium, Braves catcher Joe Torre singled, Ed Bailey reached on an error by Joe Christopher who dropped a fly ball to center field. Felipe Alou followed with a two-run single that scored both runners to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead.
Milwaukee’s starting pitcher Denny Lemaster continued his mastery into the ninth inning when, with one out, Ron Hunt singled followed by a walk to Christopher. The Mets were threatening.
Frank Thomas then grounded to third baseman Eddie Mathews, who threw to second where Braves second baseman Frank Bolling was taken out by Christopher. Meanwhile, Hunt never stopped, speeding around third he put down his head down and barreled into Bailey.
Bolling’s throw home was spot on. Hunt and Ed Bailey collided, but the Braves catcher hung on for the third out.
Bailey was infuriated and the two started throwing punches. Both benches emptied and fights were breaking out all over the field.
Rod Kanehl chased after Bailey while home plate umpire Billy Williams gave Bailey a giant bear hug from behind to keep him from getting at Hunt.
"Ron Hunt is going to be out at the plate, and we have a fight going on between Hunt and Ed Bailey. Everyone is pouring out of the dugouts. We have a real Pier 6 brawl going on at home plate.” — Bob Murphy
Casey Stengel, who 73 years old at the time, was right in the middle of the fight before being thrown to the ground by Braves infielder Denis Menke. "I grabbed him and he just pulled away,” said Stengel. “You would have thought him and me was going dancing down Main St. the way I hung on to his arms.”
Mets pitcher Tracy Stallard remembered seeing Stengel laid out behind home plate. "I stepped over somebody, looked down and saw the old man,” he said. “I started laughing so hard, I couldn't fight.”
Stengel wasn’t the only one who took a spill. Homeplate umpire Billy Williams was “knocked flat on his back,” reported the New York Times and Kanehl and Gene Oliver walked away with bloody jerseys.
Mets president George M. Weiss and assistant Johnny Murphy watched in stunned silence until Braves’ Eddie Mathews was able to extract Ron Hunt and restore order, putting an end to the fight — and the game.