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‘Absolute mayhem’: Brawl shuts down recreational baseball game in Mass.
The fight started among fans at the Monday night game in Milford and spilled onto the field.
An American Legion playoff game in Milford had to be halted Monday night after a brawl spilled onto the field and police were called to the scene.
The fight started in the stands during the bottom of the fourth inning among fans watching the game between Milford Post 59 and East Springfield. The game was tied, and with two outs and the bases loaded, East Springfield was poised to take the lead with Milford facing elimination from the playoffs, according to a livestream of the game.
A time out was called, with Milford TV’s play-by-commentator Tim Caouette noting that “fans are starting to get into it over on the third base side.”
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Soon, he said, the fans were scattering.
“Absolute mayhem taking place over by the third base dugout as members of the Milford crowd have now come onto the warning track over on the third base side,” he said.
The broadcast appeared to show members of the East Springfield team throwing punches in the brawl after at least one fan ran onto the field before umpires could separate those involved.
“Never in all of my years covering legion baseball have I ever seen this kind of activity from the fans,” Caouette said during the broadcast.
The commentator told Boston 25 News that Milford fans appeared to be involved in taunting East Springfield players and then approaching the team’s dugout.
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“There were definitely members of the East Springfield team involved,” he told the station. “The Milford players, themselves, were separated on the other side of the field.”
Milford police were called to the field when the game was suspended just after 9 p.m., according to The Boston Globe. No injuries were reported and no arrests made, but police are reportedly investigating and considering charges against three people allegedly involved in the fight, including at least one player and one fan.
East Springfield manager Eduardo Colon told the Globe the fight started when a Milford fan argued with one of his player’s parents in the stands, allegedly shoving the mother and taking a swing at the father.
“When the [fan] came around [the dugout], he swung at another parent that tried to stop him from coming, and he was just going swinging,” Colon told the newspaper. “So the kid that had seen his parents getting pushed and swung at, you know, swung back.”
Colon also alleged that in breaking up the fight, one of the umpires pushed one of his players in the face.
American Legion Baseball fields amateur teams with players aged 13 to 19 across the country, according to the website.
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Milford Post 50 announced Tuesday afternoon that the game, originally rescheduled to resume Tuesday evening, would not be played “to ensure the safety of all involved to finish the game.”
“We will post updates as soon as we have them,” Cindy Stulac, Post 59 president, wrote. “We appreciate your patience and understanding during this challenging situation.”
The decision to cancel Tuesday night’s resumption of the game was made by Milford police, she wrote.
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