Bench-clearing brawl

A bench-clearing brawl, sometimes known as a basebrawl or a rhubarb, is a form of ritualistic fighting that occurs in sports, most notably baseball and ice hockey, in which every player on both teams leave their dugouts, bullpens, or benches and charge the playing area in order to fight one another or try to break up a fight.

In baseball, brawls are usually the result of escalating infractions, often stemming from a player being hit by a pitch, or an altercation between a baserunner and infielder stemming from excessive contact in an attempted tag out (such as a runner crashing into the catcher at home plate in an attempt to dislodge the ball, which is an offensive interference violation that may result in ejection). They are also known to occur when a batter charges the mound. However, few bench-clearing brawls result in serious injury, as in most cases, no punches are thrown, and the action is limited to pushing and shoving.

Unlike most other team sports, in which teams usually have an equivalent number of players on the field at any given time, in baseball the hitting team is at a numerical disadvantage, with a maximum of five players (batter, up to three runners, and on-deck batter) and two base coaches on the field at any time, compared to the fielding team's nine players. For this reason, leaving the dugout to join a fight is generally considered acceptable in that it results in numerical equivalence on the field, a fairer fight, and a generally neutral outcome, as in most cases, managers and/or umpires will intervene to restore order and resume the game. In at least one case (the infamous Ten Cent Beer Night promotion), one team (the Cleveland Indians) left its dugout to defend the other (the Texas Rangers) from Cleveland's own fans (who had stormed the field).

Depending on the severity of the unsportsmanlike conduct, an umpire may or may not eject a brawl's participants. Since a bench-clearing brawl by definition involves everyone on both teams, it is exceedingly unlikely that all participants will be ejected, but the player or players responsible for the precipitating event are often ejected. Fines and suspensions generally result and are issued at a later date.

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