The biggest baseball punch since Michael Barrett and A.J. Pierzynski, or Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura,*occurred Sunday. The participants this time around: Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista and Texas Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor.*
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As the Barrett and Ryan punches show, fights in baseball are nothing new. Since the game was invented, teams and players have taken exception to one thing or another, and have occasionally found themselves engaged in fisticuffs.*
What separates those brawls from the Bautista/Odor dustup is that Twitter didn't exist back then. In the past, you might find video of the event on a local broadcast, or read about it in the paper. Now, gifs, memes and hot takes are immediately formed as the event unfolds.*Unsurprisingly, the internet delivered on those fronts following the Blue Jays-Rangers brawl.
There was, of course, a Chris Tucker from "Friday" mashup courtesy of our own Mike Oz.*

This one also seemed pretty obvious:*
This is my best work, it doesn't get any better from here https://t.co/oKaN07y5QL
— RT Ohio (@RT_Ohio) May 16, 2016
Someone also took the time to compare the punch to "Sonic the Hedgehog:" This may shock you, but yes, Crying Jordan was invited to the party:
Pretty rough day for Jose Bautista pic.twitter.com/J9HhA7GHUe
— Jimmy Donofrio (@JimmyDonofrio) May 15, 2016
Since being Crying Jordan'd is now the pinnacle of failure during the Internet age, that seems like an ideal place to end the Vine portion of our reactions.
None of the above Vines make Bautista look particularly great, but if you reverse the footage ... there's a way.
@trillballins pic.twitter.com/kM1lNMvWsT
— Jeanshorts (@JSBMjeanshorts) May 16, 2016
If Vines and memes aren't your thing, and you live for hot takes, don't worry, we've got you covered there. Odor didn't talk to the media following the game, but Bautista had a few opinions about how the Rangers operate.*
More Jose Bautista: "I thought it was pretty cowardly of them to wait until my last at-bat to do that."
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) May 16, 2016
That comment might seem silly considering it was a one-run game, but Rangers reliever Matt Bush didn't exactly issue a scathing denial when asked whether he threw a purpose pitch.
Bush said "no comment" when he was asked if the pitch to Bautista was intentional. No surprise there. #BlueJays #Rangers
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) May 15, 2016
Bush's no comment proves nothing, but it's an interesting way to answer the question when he could have just denied any wrongdoing.

Did you have a craving for a former ballplayer weighing in on the "wussification" of the game today? Don't worry, that happened too.
See? We don't need these pansy new slide rules. Let the boys handle it themselves. Keep the nerds out, this game has always policed itself.
— CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) May 15, 2016
Nitkowski may have been the first, but he certainly won't be the last. We're going to guess Goose Gossage's phone is ringing off the hook right now.
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