Don’t come for Toronto Blue Jays fans — they’ll hardly let you come out alive.
The Texas Rangers don’t have a ton of success to celebrate in their history. Celebrating their 50th anniversary this season, they’ve never won a World Series title, losing consecutively in 2010 and 2011.
But they did have a player punch Jose Bautista once in a regular season game, so there’s that.
Six years ago today, the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers converged on the diamond for a mid-game brawl. Most of the time when the benches clear in baseball, nothing happens other than a few good shoves and some words being exchanged, but that wasn’t the case for Texas’ Rougned Odor and Bautista.
Odor, seemingly upset with a slide from Bautista, clocked the Toronto sporting legend right across the jaw, knocking off his helmet and sunglasses.
The Rangers’ official Twitter account decided to mark the memory today with a tweet simply captioned “six years ago today.”
Six years ago today… pic.twitter.com/zogtTs8ArQ
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) May 15, 2022
It’s a great photo, there’s no doubt about that.
Of course, the punch itself was devoid of any context.
The Rangers and Odor were also a little peeved about how things had gone down the previous playoffs, where Bautista’s monster bat flip following a go-ahead three-run home run in winner-take-all Game 5 of the ALDS the previous fall.
The Jays had toppled the Rangers in that game to advance in the playoffs and would sweep them in a three game set the following fall in the ALDS once again.
As one now-infamous Blue Jays’ fan sign read, “Would rather get punched in May than knocked out in October.”
Blue Jays fans let them know the absurdity of the tweet:
The pinnacle of the 50-year-old franchise. Congratulations on the anniversary, @Rangers! May you have no other moments bigger than this. https://t.co/2g5ky5AfoD
— Minor Leaguer (@Minor_Leaguer) May 15, 2022
The greatest moment in Rangers history. Sad! https://t.co/5gY7Rd4E55
— Ryan Emmons (@emmonsaggie) May 15, 2022
The hit that mattered. https://t.co/pe2neHUGto pic.twitter.com/IfJD19nuyD
— Paul McCarthy (@PaulMcc33) May 15, 2022
I guess they've got nothing else to celebrate 🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/99tETaYEUE
— Grumblings From The Cheap Seats Podcast🎙 (@grumblingspod) May 15, 2022
Congrats to the Rangers, losers of more games than all but four teams since being swept in in the 2016 ALDS, currently six years into their five year rebuild and still in (checks notes) last place. https://t.co/nWMalhhzgF
— Drew (@DrewGROF) May 15, 2022
Rent free https://t.co/SoTM83lc4s
— Jordan A. Hayles (@MR_STiXX) May 15, 2022
This truly is the definition of a clown post https://t.co/0z6SuZjBUV
— Nathan (@Nathan_Hartline) May 15, 2022
then proceeded to get swept in the same season https://t.co/HfJSYBcSel pic.twitter.com/Ac8z8DEIDS
— Javy Báez Fan 🤫🪄 (@DetSportsPain) May 15, 2022
This has to be the most embarrassing tweet from a professional sports franchise https://t.co/XdaDXTCBnM
— Dustin Saracini (@DustinSaracini) May 15, 2022
This also happened six years ago https://t.co/DMPWFhY3zQ pic.twitter.com/lIlgcw6O7B
— GamerGeek The #PLAKATA Predictor (@GGeek0910) May 15, 2022
The Rangers are currently last in the AL West with a record of 13-19 and have not won a playoff game since Game 2 of the 2015 ALDS against Toronto. But at least they’ve got the memories of a brawl from six years ago to hang onto…
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