Cal Quantrill seemed ready to settle the matter.
The Colorado pitcher got out of a two-out jam with a fly to center field from Boston’s Reese McGuire in the top of the fourth inning of Thursday’s Rockies-Red Sox game at Coors Field, but as the benches emptied, the exchange escalated and the personal attacks became colorful.
After catching the fly ball, Quantrill yelled in celebration and threw himself to his feet, while Red Sox catcher McGwire appeared shaken and stopped running toward first base to turn his attention to the starting pitcher.
Warning: explicit language
The two men joined each other with catcher Jacob Stallings between them and began arguing, with Quantrill appearing to say, “You idiot, you jerk off in the parking lot.”
This was apparently a callback over four years in the making.
McGwire was arrested in 2020 on suspicion of masturbating in a parking lot in Dunedin, Florida, near the Blue Jays’ spring training facility.
After being charged with exposure of genitals, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, Maguire pleaded not guilty and only received a $450 fine.
The two teams eventually cleared their dugouts and approached along the first base line, resulting in some violent confrontation that ultimately settled without any physical altercation.
No ejection was issued after the tense moment, and Quantrill remained in the game, pitching six innings, allowing six hits and three runs while striking out three.
The Rockies won the game 20-7.
The two had another chance to face off in the top of the sixth, but Boston’s Romy Gonzalez (Maguire’s previous batter) got into a double play to end the inning.
Rockies relief pitcher Tyler Kinley took to the mound in the seventh inning to face McGwire.
The bench-clearing incident came exactly 20 years after the infamous brawl between the Red Sox and Yankees that involved Alex Rodriguez, Bronson Arroyo and Jason Varitek.
And adding another connection to all of this, Quantrill’s father, Paul, pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief for the Yankees in that game.
