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Dragons president speaks to team

The first serious on-field brawl in nearly nine years of baseball at Fifth Third Field prompted Dragons president Bob Murphy to hold an impromptu staff meeting in the hallway behind the upper-deck suites today, July 25.

"We have a job to do, and we have to be on it," Murphy said. "We want to put on wholesome, safe events for our fans."

Fans not bothered by Thursday's brawl

Don Campbell was first in line at the Fifth Third Field gates on Friday, July 25, waiting for 6 p.m. so he could enter the stadium and find his seat. The 60-year-old could be called the city's biggest Dragons fan, as he has an unofficial museum dedicated to the team in the second floor of his Dayton home.

He, like many fans interviewed before and during the Dragons' Friday game against the Peoria Chiefs, said a bench-clearing brawl on Thursday that resulted in an injured fan and an arrested Peoria pitcher wouldn't dull their enthusiasm about the team.

"My opinion is that the media blows it way out of proportion," Campbell said. "We've had a clean record for nine years. Actually, in my opinion, Peoria started it. Their manager pushed our manager."

Brawl aftermath: Mood cools off a day later

It wasn't going to be a usual night of baseball, so the Dayton Dragons didn't even try to make it that way Friday, July 25.

Muzzled by the parent Reds from talking about Thursday night's brawl with Peoria players, Dayton manager Donnie Scott made another decision. Batting practice would take place indoors instead of on the field, again reducing media opportunities.

The Chiefs are hoping that this event coming up on Tuesday gets attention turned back on them in a more positive light:

Cougars, Chiefs excited to play at Wrigley
Historic ballpark will host its first Minor League game Tuesday

The Peoria Chiefs and the Kane County Cougars will play the first Minor League game in the ballpark's 94-year history in the "Road to Wrigley" matchup on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. CT.

The game represents an opportunity for entry-level players -- Peoria's Cubs prospects and Kane County's A's prospects -- to experience a Major League atmosphere. It puts an image in their minds of the ultimate goal.

Here's hoping.

Yes, Here is the video

Beanings, hard slide came before brawl
How did it start?

Maybe the Peoria Chiefs were angry they had three batters hit with pitches Wednesday night in a 4-3 loss, which ended with Angel Cabrera's walk-off homer.

Maybe their anger escalated when Nate Samson, their second batter Thursday, July 24, was hit by a Kyle Lotzkar pitch.

Certainly the Dayton Dragons and Chiefs realized this wasn't going to be an ordinary game when Dayton shortstop Zack Cozart — the second batter in the bottom of the first — was drilled in the helmet by Chiefs pitcher Julio Castillo.

Then, when the Dragons scored four times on three straight hits, Cabrera walked to the plate. He was hit with Castillo's second pitch. What happened next will be remembered by fans long after the 6-5 victory is forgotten.

That is a Marc Katz article and he tracks down some quotes from the Dragons. Marc just got some ESPN air time, too.

Other Dayton Daily News stories since last night:

Dayton Dragons, Peoria Chiefs fight it out

Fight erupts at Dayton Dragons game, fan struck by ball

Peoria pitcher in Montgomery County jail

Brawl at Dayton Dragons game, fan struck by ball

Brawl breaks out at Dragons game

More as it develops.

Back to the Brawl

The other shoe has dropped in that brawl between the Peoria Chiefs and the Dayton Dragons. Remember that? The brawl that led to this from the Dayton Daily News.

Click for a really good view.

That other shoe was not another diagram. It was an indictment for #4 of that diagram.

A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted former Peoria Chiefs baseball pitcher Julio Castillo on two felony counts of felonious assault for his actions during a widely publicized brawl this past summer between the Chiefs and the Dayton Dragons at Fifth Third Field.

The charges are second-degree felonies, each punishable by up to 8 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

The July 24 brawl started when Chiefs interim manager Carmelo Martinez left his dugout to argue with former Dragons manager Donnie Scott. When Martinez pushed Scott, the benches emptied.

Video of the fight showed Castillo throwing a baseball toward the Dragons' dugout. The ball sailed, however, and struck a fan from Middletown in the head.

No further comment from me.

A Top 10 list

This is a story from the Peoria Journal-Star about the Top 10 sports stories in Peoria for 2008. Here is the intro to the article. Number two is not a surprise:

The end of Bradley’s Robertson Memorial Field House was voted the biggest local sports story of 2008 by Journal Star sports editors and reporters, but it had company in the headlines with these other notable occurrences that covered highs (Matt Elliott’s swimming success), lows (the end of Jamar Smith’s Illini career) and the frightening (the Chiefs’ Midwest League brawl). Here are the rest of the local top 10 sports stories of the year:

2. The Chiefs brawl

Back in July, the Peoria Chiefs made national news five days before they wanted.

With a game at Wrigley Field days away, the Chiefs found themselves on national highlights for a July 24 brawl at Dayton that ranks among the ugliest in Midwest League history.

After Peoria pitcher Julio Castillo beaned Dayton shortstop Zach Cozart and Dragons’ second baseman Angel Cabrera slid hard into second base, both teams were on edge in the bottom of the first inning.

That seems a good place to stop the excerpt.

This seems like a good place to mention that the incident in Dayton has a place on my own Top 10 list for Midwest League stories of 2008. That post will be up before the end of the year. That gives me a couple of days to figure out the other nine, I guess.

What the...?

Interesting night in Dayton.

A first-inning four-run rally quickly escalated into a bench-clearing brawl between the Dayton Dragons and Peoria Chiefs tonight at Fifth Third Field that halted play for an hour and 9 minutes.

The game was resumed at 8:51 p.m. after the league office in Beloit, Wis., reversed 17 ejections that were handed down following the brawl, which lasted about 10 minutes.

Dayton shortstop Zack Cozart had to leave the game after being hit in the head with a pitch and Peoria second baseman Gian Guzman went out with a broken left leg.

Holy....

Trouble may have started in the top of the first when Dayton pitcher Kyle Lotzkar hit the second batter, Nate Samson.

That half-inning ended without further incident, but when Cozart came to bat as Dayton's second batter — with a runner on first — he was drilled in the left side of the helmet by a Julio Castillo pitch.

Cozart fell to the ground immediately and eventually was helped to the dugout, finished for the evening.

Following an out, Brandon Waring then hit a slow roller toward second that Castillo tried to field. Guzman ran up behind him and fell over Castillo, breaking his leg. He had to be removed by stretcher.

What the...

That loaded the bases and Denis Phipps hit a pop fly half way down the right field line that bounced sideways into the stands for a ground rule double, scoring two runs. Catcher Devin Mesoraco then singled home two more runs.

Dayton's next batter, Angel Cabrera, was hit with a pitch, reacting angrily by throwing his bat and batting gloves toward his dugout. When Keltavious Jones, Dayton's next batter, hit a grounder to second, Cabrera slid into second, legs high, to break up the double play.

Now Peoria shortstop Nate Samson reacted angrily, gesturing it was too rough a slide.

Oh, there's more...

Castillo then threw a pitch close to Brandon Menchaca's head, prompting Dayton manager Donnie Scott to leave the third base coaching box and complain to home plate umpire Tyler Wilson.

That prompted interim Peoria manager Carmelo Martinez to join the conversation, which quickly became heated, and when Martinez pushed Scott, the benches emptied.

Several fights broke out behind home plate, and Castillo threw a ball that sailed into the stands behind the Dragons' dugout, hitting a fan who had to be taken to a hospital.

There is video right there in the sidebar. It's about :45 and it is not pretty. Also, read the story and find out how the ejections were overturned and who stressed the importance of overturning them.

Here is a release from Gary Mayse, GM of the Dayton Dragons, that was waiting in my inbox when I got back to the hotel tonight.

Statement from Gary Mayse, General Manager of the Dayton Dragons

Tonight’s on-field incident between the field staffs of the Dayton Dragons and Peoria Chiefs was unfortunate and we sincerely wish that it would have not happened.

We are confident that the footage of tonight’s incident will be reviewed by Midwest League President George Spelius and appropriate actions will be taken.

Dateline----Dayton

Dragons release Cabrera in first fallout from brawl

While the defining moment for most will be Thursday's bench-clearing brawl with the Peoria Chiefs, Dayton Dragons manager Donnie Scott said it was just one of several incidents that led to the release of second baseman Angel Cabrera this morning.
...
Earlier this season, Scott said, Cabrera elbowed the Chiefs first baseman twice in Peoria. He also acted a little too joyously when he hit a walk-off homer to win Wednesday's game against the Chiefs, then reacted angrily when the Chiefs hit him in the first inning of Thursday's game.

When Cabrera reacted to that by sliding into second spikes high to break up a double play, tempers began to get out of control.

That last paragraph may be the understatement of the year.

There is plenty more at the Dayton Daily News.

Last thing for today on the brawl

I haven't seen anything yet, but fines and suspensions were supposed to come down on the Chiefs and Dragons today. But, there was this:

"I don't want to talk numbers right now," said Spelius, mindful that eight Dragons, seven Peoria Chiefs and both managers were originally ejected from the game, although all were reinstated pending Spelius' investigation.

He did say Peoria pitcher Julio Castillo would not be banned for life, as some have suggested.

"I can't do that," said Spelius, who has been studying umpire reports and tapes of the brawl at Fifth Third Field. "I'm just a Class A president. I don't have the right to suspend for life."

Really? From 2003:

Inland Empire, before this season known as San Bernardino, made headlines this summer, but not in the way the Mariners would have preferred.

On Aug. 18, in the 15th inning of a game against Lancaster, 66ers second baseman Evel Bastida-Martinez was hit by a pitch from Josh Kranawetter. He charged the mound -- and brought his bat.

Bastida-Martinez took a squared-up, two-handed swing at Kranawetter's lower back.

"It was the ugliest thing I've ever been a part of," said Castellano, who was on second base after doubling to put Inland Empire up by three runs. "I've been in brawls, and they're all basically the same. This wasn't like that at all. It wasn't really a brawl, it was more like a bunch of us trying to defend one guy who made a huge mistake.

"A young kid gets caught up in the moment. It could have happened to me. It could have happened to anyone."

Could it really have happened to you?

"No," Castellano admits. "There's nothing that could make me bring a bat to the mound."

Kranawetter was not injured as badly as he might have been, sustaining a deep bruise, but was lost for the season. Bastida-Martinez, who was suspended for the season by the Mariners, was arrested Friday by San Bernardino police on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon.

The Mariners won't decide until after the season whether to release the 24-year-old Cuban, who came to America on a raft in 2000.

"We're having him evaluated by a Spanish-speaking psychiatrist for two reasons," Mariners farm director Benny Looper said. "One, so we can get some feedback from him on the potential of this happening again. Secondly, if the player needs some help, we want to provide the help for him. We'll do what we think is right."

"We felt like we had to back him up as a teammate (at the time), but then you realize that maybe he's ended his whole career," said Menchaca, who counts himself among Bastida-Martinez's friends. "What's done is done, but that's for sure an experience I'll take with me the rest of my life."

According to baseball-reference.

He was suspended indefinitely and later charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to 200 hours and community service and anger management counseling.

I'm pretty sure that indefinite turned into a lifetime ban from the California League. That was why he came back to the Rattlers in 2004.

A Midwest League Top 10 for 2008

One of my resolutions for 2009 is to actually follow through on things that I promise on this blog. Nothing like getting off to an early start.

One of the things that annoy me the most are Top 10 lists for a year that are published in early December. I mean there might be three weeks to go in the year. Why publish a top ten list when something still might happen to get on that list.

So, with those facts in mind and it being the last day of the year, here are my Top 10 Midwest League stories from 2009

10. Curtis Granderson rehabs with West Michigan. The Tiger outfielder made three rehab starts for the West Michigan Whitecaps. April 18, April 21, and April 22. He went 4-for-11 with an RBI in those three games. But, that wasn't the biggest impact he had for the Caps.

Date...Attendance
4/18...10,056
4/21...3,780
4/22...2,865

Those numbers may not seem like much, but for a Friday, Monday, and Tuesday in April those numbers give a pretty nice boost.

9. Sandberg returns for second stint as manager in Peoria. Speaking of giving a boost, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg was back for year number two as the skipper of the Midwest League affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. The Chiefs set an attendance record of 275,673 for the season. Also, I should really do some research on this -- and maybe one day soon I will -- but the attendance of other teams in the Midwest League took a nice bump when the Chiefs came to town.

8. The long-awaited Elfstrom Stadium expansion begins. For the last several seasons, there has been talk about the home of the Kane County Cougars receiving major renovations. The year 2008 was the year in which those renovations finally began.

7. Wrigley Field hosts Chiefs and Cougars. Over 32,000 fans were on hand to watch Peoria and Kane County play at the 'Friendly Confines'. A severe rainstorm in the ninth inning forced a suspension in play, but it was a great night for the Midwest League and minor league baseball.

6. Fort Wayne. I'm copping out and combining a bunch of stories down to just one. From the construction of the new stadium and the closing of Memorial Stadium to the new name and logo, it was an eventful year in Northeast Indiana.

5. Bees "Win". The Midwest League Champion Burlington Bees got red hot in the playoffs. They swept Kane County and Cedar Rapids in the Western Division. Then, they won the first two games of the Championship Series against South Bend. The series switched from Burlington to South Bend and never got restarted. Game Three was scheduled for Friday, September 12 and was rained out. The rain never stopped and after the game on Saturday, September 13 was called, league President George Spelius declared the series over and the Burlington Bees as the Midwest Leauge Champions.

4. Midwest League expansion. After what seems like years of discussion, there was approval for adding two teams to the Midwest League for the 2010 season. The Bowling Green Hot Rods and the Lake County Captains will play 2009 in the South Atlantic League. In 2010, they will be the members 15 and 16 in the Midwest League.

3. Welcome back, Brewers. The Brewers left the Midwest League for West Virginia after the 2004 season. In late September, the Brewers announced they were coming back to Wisconsin as the parent club of the Timber Rattlers.

2. Iowa Floods. The Mississippi River flooded this year and forced the Quad Cities River Bandits to move an early season series with the Lansing Lugnuts to Cedar Rapids, Clinton, and Iowa City. Later in the season, the Cedar River flooded Cedar Rapids. This flood did not affect any Kernel games, but the city of Cedar Rapids used the parking lot of Dale and Thomas Popcorn Field as a staging area for cleanup and rescue efforts. In that same time period, the home of the River Bandits was surrounded by water and fans used bridges to get into Modern Woodmen Park. But, safety concerns force postponement of games.

1. Dayton brawl. It made national news and not the kind that anyone wants to make. But, the brawl between the Dayton Dragons and Peoria Chiefs at Fifth Third Field in Dayton -- with Chief pitcher Julio Castillo firing a baseball at a Dragon player, but missing and hitting a fan in the stands instead leading to Castillo's arrest -- is the top story in the Midwest League this year.

Argue amongst yourselves in the comments on anything that you think should be on the list.

99 dies insquequo Oris Dies.

Chiefs focus on something else

Non-brawl stuff for the Peoria Chiefs. Today is the day they host the Kane County Cougars at Wrigley Field.

Chiefs ready for a major experience

"Playing in front of (30,000) will be amazing," Chiefs shortstop Nate Samson said. "It’s going to be a lot of fun with that big of a crowd being into it."

Wrigley to be Cougars' confines tonight

Not all of Jamie Richmond’s friends understand just how darn cool this is.

When the Toronto native takes the mound tonight as the Cougars starting pitcher, it won’t be in Peoria or Geneva or any other Midwest League outpost.

It’ll be in Chicago, at Wrigley Field, where the Cougars will face Peoria in what is believed will be the first minor-league game played at the Cubs’ famed ballpark.

“Yeah, I’m pretty lucky. Just getting this start and having the chance to pitch off a mound where so many legends have pitched, that’s quite an opportunity,” Richmond said Monday from Dayton, Ohio, where the Cougars wrapped up a three-game series with the Dragons.

Cougars, Chiefs excited to play at Wrigley

"I know as a team, we watch the Cubs games on TV every chance we get, which is every game at home," said Peoria manager and Cubs Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg. "Sometimes for these young guys, a place like that seems a million miles away. Now they get to play a game there and experience that. It's a chance of a lifetime."

Bringing it up now

The trial of Julio Castillo has been going on in Dayton for awhile. The latest AP report is here.

Testifying in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, Castillo said he had been having pitching control problems earlier in the game, became frightened as the brawl began, and did not throw at an opposing player or with the intention of hitting anyone.

"I saw that the players with the Dragons were coming," the Spanish-speaking Castillo said, testifying through a translator. "I was nervous and frightened. I threw the ball in front of the dugout to see if they would go back. I didn't throw it to hit anyone."

Under cross-examination by assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Tracey Ballard Tangeman, Castillo acknowledged that he threw the ball hard and that it went into the stands.

Here is testimony from the fan from earlier this week.

Chris McCarthy, 45, of Middletown, testified for the prosecution in the trial of Julio Castillo, who is charged with felonious assault. Castillo, a 22-year-old pitcher from the Dominican Republic, has pleaded not guilty.

Castillo was pitching for the Peoria Chiefs against the Dayton Dragons when a bench-clearing brawl broke out last July.

McCarthy says the swelling in his head got so bad that he couldn't wear a hard hat for the part of his job in which he goes into a paper mill.

McCarthy said Castillo, who appeared angry, hurled the ball toward the Dragons' dugout and that the ball came into the stands, striking him in the temple area.

"It came and struck me in the head here, knocking my hat off and leaving a mark where the seams hit me," said McCarthy, who was sittinng with his wife, his 7-year-old son and 7-year-old nephew at the time. "I didn't remember all the details after that. I did not lose consciousness, but I was not thinking clearly."

The Dayton-Peoria rivalry continues

Many posts were written about the brawl between the Dayton Dragons and the Peoria Chiefs since it happened last summer.

I'm almost positive that the reporter who wrote the following did not have that brawl in mind:

Let's see. Build a downtown arena and move the Dayton Bombers there, or support the Austin Pike site and likely bring in an American Hockey League team?

There are pluses and minuses to both plans, but the ideal combination clearly would be a downtown arena AND an AHL franchise. That's really what should be explored.

With the AHL, hockey fans would know they are seeing future National Hockey League players, because that's where many of them come from. Seems logical that it would add to the experience.

Not to compare the Dragons and Bombers, but one of the reasons baseball flourishes here is that fans know they are watching the major-leaguers of tomorrow. More than 20 ex-Dragons are in camp with the Reds.

What's important is that this city should not settle for less than the likes of Peoria, Ill., for example, which has an AHL team and a downtown arena. Or Battle Creek, Mich., which already is one-up on Dayton, having managed to figure out how to attach an arena to a hotel.

The part that caught my eye is now in bold. I'm not sure -- and maybe it's just me, but, Peoria has this and Battle Creek has that is not a persuasive argumentative technique.

Read...

...one minor league announcer's ham-handed attempt at historical perspective regarding the Brawl in Dayton.

What is it about a fight in a baseball game that both repels and fascinates? By now, everyone has seen the video of the ugliness in Dayton between the Dragons and the Peoria Chiefs. Emotions ran high - as did the spikes and beanballs - until finally the benches cleared.

Julio Castillo, a pitcher for the Chiefs, chucked a baseball at a group of Dragons charging out of the dugout. He missed the Dragons. The ball sailed into the crowd and a fan was hit in the forehead. That fan required hospitalization. Castillo has been demoted, suspended, jailed, fined, and his baseball career is probably over.

But, have things really changed that much?

Here's a thought or two

Marc Katz has a piece up at the Dayton Daily News website. It starts out with this...

It's time for baseball to install netting around the entire bottom bowl of every stadium.

That's not to protect the fans from players throwing objects into the stands, which is what happened at Fifth Third Field last week. It's to protect fans from foul balls, splintered bats and whole bats flying out of the slippery hands of players.

One study says about 300 people a year are hospitalized after being hit by batted balls into the stands at both minor and major league parks. Just three weeks ago in Chicago, a young boy had his skull cracked open by a foul ball.

Fans say they don't want to look through a net to view a game, but those seats behind home plate — all of them netted — don't go wanting, and the NHL hasn't seemed to suffer after enlarging the netscape in its arenas following the death of a young girl hit by a puck in a 2002 game in Columbus.

It's time to get the net.

Clinton has the protective netting all the around their grandstand. Alliant Energy Field, the trend-setter in baseball.

There is a middle part calling the decision to hold off on the suspensions a good decision.

Then, there is the blame game:

So, who was to blame for the brawl? A little of the blame should fall on everyone. Once three batters had been hit (two of them Dragons), a warning should have gone out from the umpires to both sides.

The umpires should also have nipped an argument between Dragons manager Donnie Scott and Peoria interim manager Carmelo Martinez when Scott protested that Martinez was yelling at his players. Remember, the umpires have about the same amount of experience as the players. After all, they're in the same low A league.

And don't buy the blather from Peoria broadcaster Nathan Baliva, whose voice is over most of the internet video of the incident.

Baliva said, "All (Scott) does is whine and complain. He ripped on the Chiefs last year in the Dayton newspaper."

All Scott said last year after several of his hitters backed outfielders up against the wall, just inches short of homers, "I guess we didn't eat our Wheaties."

Peoria manager and Hall of Fame player Ryne Sandberg took exception to that, buying a box of Wheaties and placing it in his dugout for the Dragons to see. And it was Sandberg who complained his players were getting no respect from Scott.

Hey, lighten up, Ryno.

When does Dayton play Peoria next year?

Wow, that was a big story....

The brawl between Dayton and Peoria was #1 on my list of top Midwest League stories of 2009. But, it also made the top 10 list of a sportswriter in Florence, South Carolina?

9. Jeffords in minor-league brawl

Lamar native Jeff Jeffords is involved in one of the biggest brawls in minor-league baseball history when the Dayton Dragons and Peoria Chiefs go at it during a Class A game in Dayton, Ohio, on July 24.

The 10-minute brawl starts in the first inning and results in both managers and 15 players being ejected from the game.

Peoria’s starting pitcher Julio Castillo, a 21-year-old native of the Dominican Republic, is arrested and charged with felonious assault after throwing a ball that hit a fan in the stands.

On Oct. 29, a grand jury indicts Castillo on two felony counts of felonious assault. The charges are second-degree felonies, each punishable by up to eight years in prison and a $15,000 fine. On Nov. 13, Castillo enters a not guilty plea.

Jeffords, a relief pitcher, finishes the season with a 3-6 record and a 3.39 earned run average in 40 appearances for Dayton. In 77 innings, he gives up 67 hits, walks 39 and strikes out 86. Jeffords also makes one appearance for Double-A Chattanooga.

Slow year in Florence, SC?