Chicago Cubs: Top five memorable bench-clearing incidents

Chicago Cubs: One of the most significant takedowns on a baseball diamond ever.

One key thing to remember about former Cubs reliever Kyle Farnsworth, he was a big dude. This is not someone a typical person would want to mess with as he stood 6-4, 230 pounds, and had massive arms. Former Reds pitcher Paul Wilson decided to try to get a piece of Farnsworth on June 19, 2003, at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.

It was a close game in the seventh inning, and Farnsworth relieved Mark Prior, who pitched well, but Wilson was pitching even better. With a man on first and Wilson at the dish trying to lay down a bunt, Farnsworth flung a pitch up and in towards him that ended up going to the backstop. Wilson and Farnsworth started barking back and forth, then the gloves dropped and the two lunged towards each other.

Farnsworth went low in on Wilson, wrapped his arms around him, and using his momentum, tackled him to the ground UFC style.

As Farnsworth began trying to whale on Miller like he was Ralphie beating up Skut Farkus in A Christmas Story, the benches swarmed the scene and began to pile on each other. There was some shoving and holding back, but the two teams were not on the field long, and no other significant fights broke out. The main event of the incident is what started it.

Luckily nobody was seriously hurt, but this brawl is still often talked about until this day.