Pedro Martínez throws Don Zimmer to the ground, a breakdown

May 1, 2020 2.0M views 4:30
MLB Boston Red Sox 2020

What Happened

During Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS at Fenway Park, with the series tied 1-1, the Red Sox and Yankees boiled over in the fourth inning. After Pedro Martinez plunked Karim Garcia and exchanged words with Garcia and Jorge Posada, the benches cleared. Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer, then 72 years old, charged straight at Pedro, who grabbed his head and tossed him to the grass. Zimmer ended up bloodied and stitched up, yet no one was ejected and the game continued.

Why This Matters

This is one of the ugliest moments in modern Red Sox-Yankees history, and it happened in a series that decided the pennant. The Pedro-Posada feud had been simmering all night, and the head-pointing gesture became its own debate, with Pedro changing his story over the years about what was actually said. The Zimmer toss is the image that stuck, partly because of the age gap and partly because Pedro chose to defend himself rather than sidestep. The umpires deciding to eject nobody, even after a second fight broke out in the bullpen, tells you how out of control the night got. New York won the game, but Boston pushed the series to seven before Aaron Boone's famous walk-off ended it. The bad blood carried straight into 2004.

With 2.0M views, this breakdown ranks 110th of 1,583 Jomboy breakdowns, putting it in the top 7% of the entire catalog.

Key Moments

Related Breakdowns

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Pedro Martínez, Don Zimmer. Teams: Red Sox.

Pedro MartínezDon Zimmer

Key Terms Mentioned

Bench Clearing BrawlEjection

Full Transcript

Click timestamps to jump to that moment

the 2003 ALCS were tied at two Posada

gets walked him and Pedro never liked

each other and then Nick Johnson

invented the little thumb ring that

batters where he rips a double but