They say the beauty of sports is every time you go to a game you see something you’ve never seen before. I spent the spring of 2007 covering the Terp baseball team (that means a lot time in the Shipley Field press box), so when I went to today’s series finale against Boston College I expected the usual.
When I did show up, it seemed like the biggest new development in two years was the completion of the bathroom project at Shipley Field. That was until the bottom of the third inning when third baseman Mike Murphy stopped short of first base after flying out and ran towards Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez. Words were exchanged. The benches emptied and both players were restrained. (Sanchez-measuring 6-foot-1, 220 pounds- looked like he could do some damage.)
It seems the Terps took offense to the dugout chatter of the Eagles throughout the weekend. The end result, a near brawl, provided an interesting story line to a pretty standard late March series between two of the traditional bottom teams in the ACC. Afterwards, things pretty much calmed down, although the fans called for ejections after Eagles’ pitchers hit a pair of Terp batters later in the game and the postgame handshakes went without incident.
Here are a couple interesting takes on the situation:
“Guys [from Boston College] were just running their mouths, chirping a lot,” said first baseman Gerry Spessard. “I guess tempers had just been building all weekend. I think some things happened before the game that ignited the thing. It was bound to happen today. It was just a matter of when.”
So, I asked center fielder Dan Benick about some of those things. He gave the standard “It was just two teams competing” answer. But when I followed up about rallying around Murphy, Benick was quick with his answer.
“When one of our guys goes, everyone’s in, too,” Benick said. “There’s not much else to say about that.”
For coach Terry Rupp’s part, he was quick to dismiss it as a flare up that he was just glad didn’t get out of hand. So I asked him if it’s good for a team to come together and show that support for a teammate every once in a while. He used it as a chance to defend his team.
“I think we’ve been playing good with emotion throughout the year,” Rupp said. “Our intensity has been good. Guys have been coming and playing hard.”
I was just happy to see something new at the ballpark.
edetweilerdbk@gmail.com
Tags: Dan Benick, Gerry Spessard, Terp baseball, Terry Rupp
Hi, this was my first ever college baseball game that my wife and I have been to. However, we do go to games every weekend for MLB in Washington and then to Hagerstown and Frederick in the minors when the Nationals are not home. My wife even score keeps. This also was my first time ever in Shipley Field as I went to MD from 1973 to 1978, the five year plan with a degree in Marketing.
I heard what the catcher said when this all started as well as the MD batter. I am disappointed that this type of behavior on both sides took place, as they represent their schools with many people watching from both schools including young kids. If there was tension developing all weekend, as the blog and people in the stands told me, then surely the coaches and umpires knew it was brewing too. I feel the coaches and umpires needed to do something to quiet things down before a big blowup happened. Someone told me that BC players where spitting on the Terp logo on the outfield wall, which is totally childish. I will tell you that MD fans at sporting events can be just as childish, as I know of such a terrible incident in 2004 with the FSU DC alumni club, which cause $1400 dollars in damage. If the Diamonback would like to know more, please let me know, as I got President Dan Mote, Jr. involved with that incident.
This used to happen in basketball between MD and NC, with really bad fights on the court in the early 70’s. Some of the games in the 2nd half where ended with many minutes left on the clock.
I hope that this was just a isolated case, as my wife and I really enjoyed being at Shipley Field, no matter if MD lost, as we hope to attend some more games this year.
Mike Marmer
Germantown, MD
B.S. Marketing 1978