Dodger Fan Hal McRae and My Favorite Baseball Meltdown EVER

I was perusing the Sons of Steve Garvey blog today and always enjoy their wittier posts. Today was no exception with a post on a rough exchange between Will Clark and Jeff Pearlman.

As I read through Delino’s comments on the aftermath, I thought back to a famous blowup from the early 1990s featuring Hal McRae when he was managing the Royals. I actually remember the SportsCenter story on this and the video that was played on every broadcast that fateful evening. I was living in a fraternity house and my suitemates came and grabbed me from my bedroom to see the carnage in all its glory.

My favorite moments include:
1. McRae’s 360 degree spin as he hurls the phone across the room (unfortunately, it hit a reporter and drew blood).
2. The reporters leaving the room, a staff member closing the door, and McRae’s appearance out in the hall to continue berating reporters.
3. McRae’s last stand – his triumphant stament of “put that in your %#?! pipe and smoke it!” before storming back into his office and slamming the door.

In an interview with the St Petersburg Times in 2002, McRae shared his boyhood love for the Dodgers:

We were all Dodgers fans,” McRae said. “Everybody in Avon Park was a Dodgers fan. When the Dodgers were in the World Series, at my grade school when the game was on school was out. They felt we needed some heroes, and [Jackie Robinson] was the guy.

Enjoy.