Yasiel Puig is no longer in the MLB, but he is still mixing it up on the baseball diamond. On Thursday night, Puig was at the center of a massive brawl in a Venezuelan baseball league.
In the eighth inning of the game, Maikel Garcia of Tiburones de La Guaira hit a two-run home run to give his team a 10-8 lead over the Cardenales de Lara. As he was rounding the bases, Garcia taunted the Cardenales and trash-talked their dugout as he was jogging down the third-base line.
That prompted the Cardenales bench to clear, and the two teams met in the middle of the diamond. As the brawl escalated, Puig took a shot from one of the Cardenales, and that sparked another scuffle in foul territory.
Puig and the Cardenales player exchanged punches, and they wound up tangling beside the netting, right in front of the fans. As drinks flew from the seats, Puig continued to tussle with his combatant.
Things eventually cooled down, and the teams were able to finish the game. Afterward, Puig took to social media to defend himself from those criticizing him for being at the center of another brawl.
“But my agent shows all videos and yet I see now what they show back in USA somehow is me starting fight which is not true,” Puig wrote. “I play today, I no get punished because I do nothing wrong. No man. Enough. I can’t anymore. Please stop. I not this guy you want me to be. Pick someone else already you have destroy me enough.”
Back in 2019, Puig was involved in a bench-clearing brawl as a member of the Cincinnati Reds, even though he has been traded to Cleveland almost simultaneously. Tempers looked as though they had finally cooled when Puig came out of the pack and tried to take on multiple Pittsburgh Pirates by himself.
