Top 20 MLB brawls of all time

17. Ty Cobb fights a fan, 1911

Ty Cobb’s temper was legendary, and there are numerous tales of his violent behavior on the baseball diamond. It’s hard to say where the hyperbole ends and where Cobb’s anger and viciousness actually began. There is no debating the point, though, that his attack on a fan in 1911 is a black eye on the game of baseball.

When the Tigers visited New York City for the first time in May of the 1911 season, Cobb was given his typical dose of heckling and verbal abuse. He went back and forth with a man named Claude Lucker for several innings before eventually snapping.

"But as he ducked into the dugout before batting in the fourth, Cobb hurled an insult at the man, according to Cobb’s biographer Charles Alexander. The man, a Tammany Hall page named Claude Lucker (or Lueker, in some accounts), who had lost all but two of his fingers while operating a printing press, continued taunting Cobb. The Tigers’ Sam Crawford asked Cobb what he intended to do. And with that, Cobb suddenly vaulted into the stands toward Lucker, seated about 12 rows up in the grandstand. Knocking Lucker down, Cobb began kicking and stamping him. “Cobb,” someone cried, “that man has no hands!” “I don’t care if he has no feet!” he yelled, continuing the attack with his cleats. Some fans tried to intervene, but several teammates who had followed Cobb into the grandstand held them off with bats. An umpire and a police officer finally pulled Cobb away."

Cobb was immediately suspended indefinitely by American League president Ban Johnson. Cobb’s teammates responded by refusing to play until he was re-instated. Tigers owner Frank Navin was threatened with a $5,000 fine if his team forfeited a game, so he assembled a rag-tag team that lost its first game 24-2. Cobb got his teammates to agree to play and served out a 10-game suspension before returning to win the batting title with a .409 average.