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The Major League Baseball off season can be pretty boring at times for some fans. Sometimes teams don’t do a lot with the free agent market or trades (or don’t do what their fan base wants). Some fans turn to other sports, like football or hockey, or look to follow other leagues, like the Dominican League, Mexican League, or even Aussie baseball.
Well if you don’t follow any of the “winter” leagues, check out this brawl from a Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (VPBL) playoff game last night:
Insólito. pic.twitter.com/Y5OWQwEtgr
— Daniel Álvarez Montes (@DanielAlvarezEE) January 9, 2020
Caribes de Anzoategui was facing Aguilas del Zulia and it’s safe to say that things got heated throughout the contest, which saw five batters being plunked along with nine total ejections. The video above included five ejections, including Minnesota Twins’ own super-utility man Willians Astudillo. In the top of the eighth, batter Alex Romero, who saw some time in the majors with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2008 and 2009, did not take kindly to being thrown at, and to express his displeasure, he took his bat and started hitting the catcher with it. During the brawl, La Tortuga ran in from first base to try and get some leverage off of his catcher on a jumping kick, which can be seen at about the 16-second mark.
Astudillo’s ejection left the Caribes de Anzoategui with no remaining catchers, so the team captain had to put on the gear to finish up the game. Caribes de Anzoategui won handily by a score of 13-2.
Fines and suspensions are surely to come down from the VPBL offices. It’s not clear if Astudillo will face any consequences of this state-side once he reports to the camp for the Minnesota Twins. La Tortuga could end up on the 26-man roster for the Twins this year as a utility player, but could also end up in AAA Rochester once the team heads to the west coast for the season opener.