Minor Leagues: Jacksonville Suns and Birmingham Barons Involved in Brawl (Video)

While the Miami Marlins were in the process of winning their 5th game in 6 games in the Major Leagues, their minor league affiliate Jackonville Suns experienced a ton of on-field excitement as well, but for the wrong reasons.

The Double-A affiliate for the Marlins’ franchise was involved in a major brawl with the Birmingham Barons in Jacksonville. Here is the video of the clip:

The video is 17 minutes long, but worth watching every second of. There are two different instances when the benches clear, two different managers from opposing teams screaming their heads off at the umpire, and an ejected manager throwing garbage and baseballs onto the baseball field.

The Suns play-by-play voice, and Marlin Maniac friend, Rodger Hoover does an excellent job of covering the brawl and all it’s excitement. He notes that the umpires were at fault for letting the entire thing get out of their hands.

The initial bench clearing was a result of Birmingham’s Jeremy Farrell bumping Jacksonville reliever Matt Ramsey and taunting him. Ramsey then headed towards the the Barons bench firing back words.

Suns’ manager Andy Barkett was ejected for defending Ramsey, stating that Farrell was the main culprit of the entire mess:

"“I saw exactly what happened. Ramsey was coming to back up home and then Farrell bumped into him and then said something to him to the effect of, ‘Get out of the way,’ or something ridiculous,” Jacksonville manager Andy Barkett told the Suns’ media team.“It was really unprofessional by Farrell, in my opinion, for doing that. If you make contact with the pitcher, that’s fine, but you don’t need to turn around and say something.”“They were ejecting Farell and then ejecting Ramsey. I didn’t understand why they were ejecting Ramsey because he was doing his job covering home plate and was run into by their guy and then basically challenged by their guy,” Barkett said.“Farrell, to me, was the guy who instigated the whole thing, so I didn’t see why Ramsey should be ejected from the game for basically minding his own business. And then he gets hit and then he gets talked smack to, so at that point, it’s hard to just walk away.”"

In defending his pitcher, Ramsey, Barkett was tossed from the game as well, as he seemed very animated with the umpire crew. When he was tossed, he lost his cool and flung his hat at one of the umpires and then tossed two buckets of baseballs onto the field. He then returned to the field to drag Ramsey out of the game. He was jawing at the Barons’ dugout the entire time.

The Barons’ dugout was doing some talking back as well, which eventually led to Jacksonville first baseman Wilfredo Gimenez charging the Barons’ dugout. The benches cleared as a result and there was more pushing and shoving, as well as some punches being thrown.

"“I didn’t know what happened at that point,” Barkett said. “I just know that [Josh] Richmond sucker punched me in the side of the face, and he should get suspended for that childish and I don’t know what you call it other than coward behavior, to just throw punches in the middle of a brawl, especially to an opposing manager.”"

It’s a shame that a major scene like this can take place at a baseball game, but luckily no one was hurt, but you have to know there are going to be some heavy suspensions handed out.

Stay tuned to Marlin Maniac for all the latest Marlins’ news, as well as news on their minor league affiliates.