Miguel Olivo Just Cannibalized Alex Guerrero And Other Teammate Fights
When they finally do see him, he may appear a little weird in the ear.
Guerrero, a shortstop in Cuba, made Los Angeles’ opening season trip to Australia, but has been in Triple-A since then, learning second base. The 27-year olds’ failure to grasp the subtleties of the position has now cost him part of his face.
During a game between the Dodgers’ affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes and the Salt Lake Bees, Guerrero wasn’t able to tag out a runner stealing second base on a throw from catcher Miguel Olivo in the bottom of the seventh inning . Olivo, a 13-year MLB veteran, had just been sent down when A.J. Ellis came off the DL. It was the Bees third stolen base of the day, and a frustrated Olivio confronted Guerrero about the tag during a meeting at the mound.
Their argument spilled into the dugout in the top of the eighth, and that’s when things got physical. During the scuffle Olivio went Mike Tyson on Guerrero’s ear, removing a significant chunk of it with his teeth. Oh, did we mention it was “Kids Day” in Salt Lake City and there were 12,000 elementary school students in attendance?
Hopefully the children weren’t able to see what was quite the bloody mess. According to Guerrero’s agent Scott Boras, his client was immediately taken to the hospital where his ear was reattached by a plastic surgeon. Sources say he will be out for up to five weeks.
Guerrero hasn’t decided whether he will press charges against Olivio. Both players may be subject to punishment from the team.
“We don’t condone it, and we don’t think it’s constructive,” Dodgers’ general manager Ned Colletti said of the incident. “People can have disagreements. When it gets beyond that level, it’s over the limit.”
Olivo has been involved in violent altercations before. In 2007 he escalated a brawl between the Marlins and Mets by throwing a wild punch at Jose Reyes.
As for Guerrero, he’s been raking at Triple-A, boasting a triple slash line of .376/.417/.735. However, his poor middle infield defense and the emergence of Dee Gordon at second base for the big club has put his future in flux. Before his injury, there had been talk of trying to teach him a position further down the defensive spectrum.
No matter what happens, Guerrero is already a big leaguer when it comes to teammate brawls. Just last week on LUF we had a rundown of the greatest teammate fights in baseball history, spurred on by a comparatively milquetoast disagreement between Washington Nationals Gio Gonzalez and Ian Desmond.
You can read about altercations between the likes of Torii Hunter and Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent and more here. Although you’ll find none of them come close to Guerrero/Olivo throw-down for guts and gore. Few could.
