5. Chan Ho Park Karate Kicks Tim Belcher

June 5th, 1999. An interleague game between the Angels and Dodgers got interesting when the two pitchers got into it on the basepaths. Chan Ho Park, the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, took offense to the way Angels pitcher Tim Belcher tagged him after Park hit a ground ball. It started much like any other baseball fight, until Park took things up a notch.

Specifically this notch.

Park, after throwing a few lame punches, opened up on Belcher with the always classic spinning scissor kick. It didn’t exactly work out like in a Jackie Chan movie.

All it did was send the would be kung fu master to the ground on his back, where he was easy prey for a good ole fashioned American beatdown. Park was thrown out of the game, and his aborted action movie play has been included on every sports blooper reel assembled ever since.

4. Pedro Martinez takes on the Yankees, old person

To say the Yankees and Red Sox have a rivalry is like saying America and Japan had a “political dispute” in the 1940s. The two teams have rabid fanbases that can’t stand each other, they both compete in the

same division, and it’s the longest standing and most heated rivalry in American sports. This all boiled over during the 2003 ALCS, when for the second time in four years, the two teams played each other for the American League pennant. By Game 3, tensions had boiled over at Fenway Park, and came to a head in the form of Pedro Martinez.

Can’t imagine why.

It was the 4th inning, and already the Yankees had tagged Martinez for 4 runs. He was pissed off, and he displayed that by throwing at Karim Garcia’s head, which was responded to by Garcia sliding hard into second base later that inning, escalating tensions even more. When Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens threw inside at Manny Ramirez, then the brawl was on. Of particular note was Yankee coach Don Zimmer, who went after the man he felt started it all: Pedro Martinez. He bum rushed Martinez, a man 40 years his junior, and…it didn’t go well for him.

After THAT fracas was cleared up, and Zimmer taken away in an ambulance, the game resumed. Things heated up again in the 9th, when another brawl was kicked up by a Red Sox grounds crew member against the Yankee bullpen.

Amazingly, no one would be ejected, and the series would be won by the Yankees in 7 games in one of the most dramatic League Championship Series games of all time.

3. Crafty old Ryan issues Major League Beat Down

August 4th, 1993. Nolan Ryan was in the midst of what would be his final season in uniform, bringing an end to an illustrious career that would lead to the Hall of Fame. He was 46, and far past his prime, but not too far removed from his fireballing days of pitching 7 no hitters that he wasn’t still capable of a good dustup. 26 year old Robin Ventura made the mistake of thinking otherwise when his White Sox met Ryan’s Rangers.

Ten seconds after this was taken, he killed the photographer with the baseball.

So, Ryan hits Ventura with a pitch. Really, no one should have been surprised, Ryan was known to be wild and hit a lot of batters in his long career. What was odd about it was that the hotheaded Ventura got offended enough by it to charge the mound. It’s the equivalent of a Padawan learner challenging Mace Windu to a lightsaber duel: it’s disrespectful, foolhardy, and most of all, it’s not going to end well.

Mmhmm, you know that’s right.

The crafty Ryan waited for the charging bull to come, and then ole`ed him right into a headlock, and once there, proceeded to pummel him with his free hand.

“HOW WOULD YOU LIKE SOME MORE OF THIS, YOU LITTLE PUKE!”

It consistently ranks as one of the most one sided fights in baseball history for good reason: Ventura got his fresh face punched off by a living legend, and he is now remembered for all time as being on the receiving end of the Nolan Ryan fist punch of doom.

2. Knock Down Drag Out in Atlanta

The worst fight between two teams took place in Atlanta on August 12, 1984 between the Braves and the Padres. The Friars had a comfortable 10 ½ game lead over the Braves in the NL West standings, so there wasn’t expected to be much of a rivalry between the two. Of course, that all changed when Braves pitcher Pascuel Perez hit Pads batter Alan Wiggins with the first pitch of the game, obviously deliberately. San Diego manager Dick Williams vowed revenge for the cheap shot, and plotted it out to a tee, planning who would replace him when he was tossed, as well as the pitcher, and the replacement manager’s replacement. It was going to be ugly.

Oh sure, he’s laughing now, because he’s remembering the time he had a guy kneecapped.

Williams decided to wait until Perez came up to bat before exacting vengeance. Three times they missed him in various points in the game, causing two managers and two pitchers to be ejected for the Padres. Finally, in the 8th inning, Padres reliever Craig Lefferts hit Perez on the elbow. Then it was on, as both teams poured out of the dugout and began a Gangs of New York style street brawl without any weapons.

It’s sad that Rollie Fingers didn’t play for either team then, he would have made the perfect Bill Cutting.

In the midst of the fracas, one Padre went after Perez, who was hiding in the dugout, but was taken down by a Brave and two fans who decided to get in on the action, resulting in another pileup near the on deck circle, terrifying a 12 year old batboy caught in the melee. Finally, order was restored, but not for long. In the 9th inning, Braves manager Joe Torre brought Donnie Moore out of the bullpen to pitch. He promptly drilled Padre batter Graig Nettles, who had slugged him in the first brawl. Another brawl ensued.

All bets are off by this point.

Things were escalating now as fans starting throwing things at Padres player Kurt Bevacqua, who made the mistake of going into the stands after the fans responsible. He slipped and fell, and was set upon by the group of fans, being pummeled until a security guard intervened. The Padres starting pitcher-ejected in the 4th inning-came back onto the field with no shirt on to continue the brawl. Another fan ran onto the field trying to steal the third base bag, but was tackled by two Braves players. Finally, head umpire John McSherry banished both teams to the clubhouse for twenty minutes to give everyone time to cool down.

Maybe next time you’ll think about it before running around shirtless hitting people.

The game was eventually finished with police on top of the dugout and both benches emptied in one of the wildest games ever. There were a grand total of thirteen ejections, including three different Padres managers, 5 fans were arrested, there were three different brawls throughout the game, 7 players and managers were later suspended for their part in the brawl, the worst was Dick Williams, who received a ten game suspension. But the Padres would go on to the World Series that year, losing to the Tigers, so they got the last shot in.

1. Ten Cent Beer Night

One only has to speak those words to a baseball fan and they will shiver at the recollection. For the uninitiated, Ten Cent Beer Night was one of the most insane things to ever happen on a baseball field. In 1974, the Cleveland Indians were in the midst of a very long streak of being an awful baseball time,

combined with the fact that Municipal County Stadium, the “Mistake by the Lake” as it was known, was a dump. So attendance figures were really bad for a Major League Baseball team, about 8,000 a game. So, to increase attendance, on the night of June 4th, the Indians offered all the 8oz. cups of beer a fan could drink for only a dime apiece, and there was no cap on the amount you could buy.

“I can’t possibly see how anything can go wrong here, can you?”

25,000 people showed up to watch the Indians play the Rangers, who just the week before had a dustup in Texas where drunken fans stormed the field, but that wasn’t considered an issue here. The game progressed, and the crowd got drunker and more unruly. Signs of trouble were seen early on, when several people in various states of undress ran onto the field and displayed breasts, buttocks, and other private body parts to the general public. Fans started pelting opposing players with hotdogs, empty wine bottles, and loogies, among other things.

How did they get that into the stadium? You know what, we don’t want to know.

Things came to a head in the bottom of the 9th, where the Indians had just managed to come back and tie the score when a fan ran out onto the field and stole Texas right fielder Jeff Borroughs’ hat, knocking him over in the process. Rangers manager Billy Martin, who was no stranger to fights and brawls (he once got in a very publicized bar fight with a marshmallow salesman) thought that his player was under attack, grabbed a bat, and charged out onto the field to rescue him, followed by other players also carrying bats. This touched off a full blown riot as drunken fans armed with whatever weapons they could find stormed the field and went after the Rangers.

Seeing that the Rangers were in trouble, the Indians manager ordered his players to enter the fray to help them out, turning it into a battle as bat wielding players fought off fans carrying knives, chains, and broken pieces of seating. Bottles and steel folding chairs were being thrown from the stands, hitting players. The umpire, after suffering several injuries himself, forfeited the game to the Rangers, as any disruption of play is blamed on the home team. As the players got everyone safely into the clubhouses, the drunken mob was only dispersed by riot police who had to use tear gas to restore order. The stadium was absolutely wrecked, players were cut and bruised, it was like the aftermath of an explosion preceded by a rave party.

Ten Cent Beer Night is one of only a handful of instances where a baseball game had to be forfeited in the last 50 years, and it’s by far one of the worst fights ever seen on a field. Maybe someday, if all you readers are good little boys and girls, we’ll tell you the story of another baseball riot: Disco Demolition Night.

Dubai has always surprised the world with its amazingly tall buildings and wondrous constructions. Most of you have probably seen the Burj Al Arab; it’s the world’s most luxurious hotel and is noticeably shaped like the sail of a ship. Well, did you know that situated atop this glorious building is a tennis court?

That’s right: a tennis court that’s 1,000 feet high in the Dubai sky. And it’s a real court where you can play tennis matches as you enjoy the view over Dubai city. Well, I don’t know how much the players enjoy the view, as I’m sure they’ll be a little too concerned with, y’know, falling off the side as they play a game. And if you thwack one of those tennis balls a smidgen too hard, you can certainly say goodbye to its little yellow ass; I guess the people at the beach below must be used to having spherical objects falling down from the clouds and smacking them in the face. The tennis court was built on one of the hotel’s grass helipads to promote the tennis tournament Dubai Open. The first players to have a match on this court were former ATP number 1 Andre Agassi and Roger Federer.

More unusual places to play sports are these stadiums over the world.

But what people don’t take into account is that baseball players have to be just as in shape as any other athlete, and in some cases, they’re more conditioned than anyone else. In fact, we want to see those beefy football players try to pull off some of these stunts…

5. Ozzie Smith

Nicknamed “The Wizard,” Ozzie Smith is considered one of the best defensive players in history. Amassing 13 Gold Gloves and 15 All Star appearances over an 18 year career, Smith earned himself a spot in the Hall of Fame and had his number retired by the St. Louis Cardinals.

He also has a statue that makes him look like a zombie.

He’s remembered best for his diving stops at shortstop, seemingly spending half his career eating dirt, and also for his walk off home run in the 1985 NLCS, the call of which by Jack Buck is acknowledged as one of the greatest broadcasting moments of all time. But what sets Ozzie apart from all the other Hall of Fame shortstops was what was lovingly dubbed “The Flip.”

Every game from his rookie season until he retired, as he ran out to his position to start the game, he performed a backflip, much to the delight of the home crowd. Keep in mind that he was still doing this when he was 40, past the age when some athletes are able to put on a uniform without hurting themselves, this guy was catching air. And what’s more, he pulled it off every time, without falling on his ass.

And after he retired, he pulled this off.

4. Rodney McCray

By all accounts, Rodney McCray had a rather minor career in baseball. He spent three years in the majors, mostly bouncing between levels of the minor leagues. However, they say everyone has their day in the sun, and McCray’s came on May 21, 1991, at Civic Stadium in Portland. McCray was playing in the outfield for the visiting Vancouver Canadians when Chip Hale hit a fly ball deep. McCray chased after it, so focused on the ball that he wasn’t watching where he was going, and crashed right through the outfield wall.

If you’ve never seen this before, you’re a Communist.

McCray was unharmed by the collision, although he didn’t catch the ball. The play propelled him to instant stardom, albeit in the form of “that crazy dude that ran through a wall.” It was shown on newsreels and on Sportscenter a thousand times throughout the rest of the year, and continues to be shown on blooper reels 20 years later. The video was even selected for preservation by the Hall of Fame, on their Blooper reel. As for McCray, he became a coach, and on 2006, had his seminal moment preserved in the best way baseball knows how: a bobblehead.

3. Brian Kownacki

On April 20, 2010, Fordham was playing a game against Iona, with Iona leading 9-1. Brian Kownacki, a sophomore shortstop, was brought in to pinch hit, and was hit on the wrist. Fast forward to the 8th inning, one of the strangest innings in the annals of baseball. Fordham scored 11 runs, and Kownacki was hit on the shoulder in both his at bats this inning. But the awesome was yet to come. With the bases loaded, the next Fordham batter hit a line drive up the middle for a single that was bobbled by the center fielder. First one run, then two runs scored. Now Kownacki was waved around third, but he probably shouldn’t have done that, because the center fielder recovered, and threw the ball to the catcher well before Kownacki got there. By all accounts, they had him dead to rights.

Of course, that had never stopped him in the past.

Now, Kownacki had three choices here. He could try to go back to third and be caught in a rundown, hopefully causing them to throw the ball away, but more than likely be tagged out, try to bowl over the catcher in a home plate collision and make him drop the ball, which might not work and could get somebody hurt, or the option he ended up picking: defy gravity.

Seemingly out of nowhere, he up and flew over the catcher, pulling a reverse Ozzie and coming down on the other side of the stunned receiver, tagging home plate and scoring. The opposing manager tried to argue, but Kownacki hadn’t gone outside the basepath, interfered with the other team in any way, and there was no rule against players sprouting wings at crucial moments. Fordham went on to win in comeback fashion, 12-9, but it did more than anyone in attendance could imagine. The video clip was sent to ESPN, where it immediately made Sportscenter’s Top Plays, and it circulated around the Internet, eventually garnering Kowlacki an ESPY for “Outstanding Sports Moment.” There’s no word yet on possible Barnum and Bailey’s Trapeze artist contract possibilities.

2. Bo Jackson

Bo Jackson was one of the great pure athletes of the past 25 years. He won the Heisman Trophy as a running back at Auburn. He won state competitions in the 100 meter dash while in High school, and batted .401 as a college baseball player. He was drafted by the Buccaneers, and he seemed destined for a long football career. However, he was angry at Tampa for deliberately sabotaging his college eligibility by taking him on a private jet, a violation of NCAA rules, so, he signed with the Kansas City Royals to play baseball instead.

You don’t want to make him angry.

The very next year, he made headlines by signing a deal with the Raiders, that would allow him to play both baseball and football at the same time. He made further headlines by becoming the first man to make All Star teams in two different major sports. Some of his more memorable antics included breaking bats over his knee after a strikeout, or occasionally, over his head:

or ploughing over opposing defenders that dared to trash talk about him before the game:

But his most acrobatic play came in a Kansas City uniform. On July 11, 1990, he ran down a fly ball to deep center only a couple of steps from the wall. He knew he wouldn’t be able to slow down in time to avoid colliding with the wall, so instead, he simply ran up it, like he was Spiderman. He probably went 5 feet up the wall before jumping down safely.

Eh, Bo did it. Wearing CLEATS, no less.

An injury on the football field cut short his career in both sports, but for a three or four year period, one of the premier players of both MLB and NFL was Bo Jackson.

1. Jim Edmonds

Most of you have probably seen Willie Mays’ famous catch in the 1954 World Series, where he ran all the way back to run down a ball with an over the shoulder catch, making it look easy in the process.

He ran so hard because he saw a twenty on the ground.

What if I told you that wasn’t the most amazing catch in the history of baseball? That honor goes to Jim Edmonds, a star defensive outfielder who pulled off the Mays style over the shoulder catch, but unlike Mays, Edmonds had to headlong dive for the ball without knowing exactly where it was.

“Oh man, is this going to hurt when I hit the ground.”

But, it was just another day’s work for the 8 time Gold Glove winner. He did this sort of thing all the time. Like this catch, which you would think is the same as the other one if he wasn’t wearing a different uniform.

Here he is rolling around after another diving catch:

Or perhaps your flavor is more “robbing someone of a home run while at the same time recording the final out of the game.”

In conclusion, Jim Edmonds may in fact be Superman, and more probably, should be Robert Downey Jrs stunt double in his next movie. After all, he certainly looks like him.

By Ben Adelman

Nike – Hit The Target!

The 2010 Nike ‘hit the target’ advert by London based Wieden + Kennedy London stars footballer superstars Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres. This over the top commercial sees Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney pit his wits against a room full of deadly laser beams that can cut through material, controlled by then Liverpool player Fernando Torres. Torres ups the ante by creating a series of tight laser loops for Rooney to conquer. Will he get the ball all the way through and into the goal without so much as a scuff? Watch the video to find out.

Tiger Woods 09 – Walks on Water

Technically an ad for a video game, this online video was produced by EA Sports as a response to a fan video posted on YouTube which demonstrated a “glitch” in the game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, which allowed Tiger’s virtual character to walk on water. The video portrays the real golf legend removing his shoes and socks and ‘actually’ walking on water, followed by the tag line ‘It’s not a glitch, he’s just that good!”.

Sky Sports Super League Promo 2011

Xenon Studios produced this epic teaser campaign, for rugby’s 2011 Engage Super League, for Sky Sports in the UK. The ad appears to takes its inspiration from the blockbuster movie Iron Man 2, released shortly before this ad was made, and portrays the players as ‘men of steel’ complete with full body armour suits. This was the first complete CGI title sequence the British broadcaster had ever commissioned.

Haye vs Klitschko: ‘Rocky’ Promo

This promo for the much-anticipated Boxing match between David Haye vs Wladimir Klitschko in July 2011 is a great example of sports broadcasters taking their lead from fiction. As if the Minority Report style overlay graphics weren’t over the top enough, the ad shows Haye supposedly training in a slaughterhouse à la the “Italian Stallion” himself Rocky Balboa.

Sky Sports News HD Advert – Reporting for Duty

As if it’s not cringeworthy enough that sports stars have gone all Hollywood on us, this clip actually features the sports presenters. The ‘Reporting for Duty’ campaign was produced in 2010 for the launch of the Sky Sports News HD channel and shows the news presenters playing a bunch of elite special agents ‘reporting for duty’. A cross between James Bond and Mission Impossible, this extravagant ad is worth watching just to see the Sky Sports girls dressed head to toe in leather and middle aged men living out their dream.

Red-Bull Racing/Toro Rosso movie “Bullfight”

This absolute epic from Red-Bull racing and Toro Rosso stars Formula one drivers David Coulthard and Mark Webber laying down the gauntlet to their ‘junior’ team, Scuderia Toro Rosso. Originally aired in 2007 this mini-movie is set in apparent ‘Mad Max Times’ and is probably the only time you’ll see an F1 car in a bullring! The four and a half minute duration sets this out to be the closest thing to a movie.

The Aussies are Coming! The Ashes promo from Sky TV

Another over the top sporting campaign from Sky Sports; this time promoting the Ashes. Supposedly set in 1805, this ‘period’ commercial features cricketing legends Shane Warne, Ian Botham, David Lloyd and David Gower. Warne is portrayed as a convicted, being shipped off to Australia, but before boarding the boat turns to the English cricketers warning them “I’ll be back!”

Nike – Eric Cantona vs. The Devil

The biblical grandeur of this 1996 Nike advert sets it way above the rest on the epic dial. Set within the confines of a coliseum, supposedly located somewhere in the fiery pits of Hell; Eric Cantona, Ronaldo and few more of the leading players from the Euro 96 era are pitted against the Devil’s henchmen. All the hallmarks of a Hollywood blockbuster are there – cheesy one liners, orchestral score, an epic setting for a finale and the ultimate depiction of good vs. evil. The occasional violence and dark nature of this advert meant that it could only be shown after the watershed.

This article was produced on behalf of Home Leisure Direct – UK suppliers of home gaming entertainment, including table tennis, arcade machines and football tables.

We are all familiar with the fact that boxing is, well…a pretty brutal combat sport. Of course boxers get out in the ring completely normal and clean, and comes back all bloody, sweaty and gross. Danish artist Nicolai Howalt has started a project that he calls “Boxer” where he photographs boxers before and after they go to fight. Every photo is raw but artistic.

You can see the blood and how exhausted they look. Most of them are so young that it’s somehow disturbing to see blood on their face and t-shirts. Some even look like they’ve been crying, or maybe it’s just all the sweat that’s running down. I just know I wouldn’t want my kids to become boxers. Speaking of raw style in photography, here are some stunning photos of a white tiger hunting bloody meat under water.