Show Hits Dawson With a Pitch, Sparks Brawlgame Won by Cubs

At 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, the best and most popular baseball player in this town was knocked into a blue-and-white heap. The Chicago Cubs’ Andre Dawson, two innings after hitting his third homer in his last five at-bats against the San Diego Padres, was hit square in the face by pitcher Eric Show.

For the next two hours, the Cubs and Chicago got even.

In a game featuring two bench-clearings, four fights, seven Cub ejections and dozens of cups of beer and ice on the field and on Padre uniforms, the Cubs won by a 7-5 score that should contain an asterisk.

After the third-inning beaning of Dawson, the Padres quit playing baseball and concentrated on fighting their way out of what suddenly became an ivy-covered alley with an angry gang of 27,000.

None of the Padres were ejected--Show was just given a warning--but they might as well have been.

“Today was the first time in my life that I have been scared to go to the plate,” said National League-leading hitter Tony Gwynn of San Diego. “We lost the game, but so damn what? Who gives a damn? I never thought I’d say that, but it’s the truth. I’m just glad we got out of there without getting hurt.”

Cub Manager Gene Michael said: “I don’t like balls thrown at our players, I don’t like head-hunting. If they are going to do that, let’s go get ‘em.”

Ultimately, the only one who got it was Dawson, suffering cuts on his left-upper lip and a bruise on his left-lower cheekbone. Although X-rays for fractures showed no broken bones, he received 24 stitches inside and outside the mouth.

Show, who left the game immediately after the beaning because of concern for his safety, made a statement through Padre spokesman Mike Swanson. Before leaving the park with a security escort, he scrawled out five sentences on the back of a yellow phone message slip. There were several words changed or crossed out. Teammate Storm Davis said that while Show was writing it, he appeared to be in shock.

It read: “I sincerely regret the unintended pitch that hit Andre Dawson. I have never intentionally thrown a pitch to hit a batter in my life, and I was not even intending to brush him back. I don’t believe that throwing at a hitter is part of the game.

“I apologize to the Cubs, the fans of Chicago and especially Andre Dawson. It was unfortunate, and I’m sure I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I don’t know any other words to express my feelings at this time.”

Padre Manager Larry Bowa expanded on that.

“If the Cubs thought Show was intentionally going for Andre, then they were justified in what they did,” he said. “But I would never order a guy to hit somebody. I know which guys on my staff would and would not hit somebody. And Eric Show definitely would not. The Cubs evidently don’t know him too well.”

Chicago’s Leon Durham saw it this way: “What they did was bad business. We’re dealing with somebody’s life here.”

The talk gets this way in games where innings sound more like rounds.

Third Inning: Show hit Dawson in the face. Cub pitcher Rick Sutcliffe charged the field and hit Show. Dawson picked himself up and, in a wild search for Show, hit nearly everybody. Dawson and Sutcliffe were ejected.

Fourth Inning: Cub pitcher Greg Maddux hit Benito Santiago in the rear. After Maddux and Michael were ejected--the manager automatically goes with the pitcher in such retaliation cases--Cub infielder Manny Trillo hit the field with a tray of sunglasses. He was apparently throwing them at third-base umpire John Kibler. He missed. Trillo was ejected.

Fifth Inning: Cub pitcher Scott Sanderson threw behind Gwynn’s back four straight times. Baseball strategy dictates, if you want to hit a player, throw behind his back.

Eighth Inning: Sanderson threw behind Chris Brown twice, coming so close once that Brown trotted to first base, thinking he’d been hit. Sanderson and interim manager Johnny Oates was ejected.

The Last Six Innings: When the Padres came to bat, many of the 26,615 fans chanted: “Hit ‘em, hit ‘em.”

For fouling a ball into the Padre dugout, nearly hitting Bruce Bochy, Cub Paul Noce received a huge ovation.

The Padres pulled their players out of the bullpen immediately after the incident, but when they were forced to use it later, they were bathed in beer and nuts.

“I’ve seen a few beers come out of there before, but never like this,” said bullpen catcher Ron Oglesby. “I guess we could have gone into the stands and started a riot. But I think we were outnumbered.”

Perhaps more than anything for the mostly inexperienced Padres, it was a day of learning. You can do anything you want to the Cubs, even keep them out of a World Series (which the Padres did in 1984). But don’t mess with the heads of their heroes.

Dawson has spent this summer leading the team back to respectability. Entering Tuesday, he was second in the National League with 23 homers, second with 73 RBIs, fourth with 95 hits, sixth with a .562 slugging percentage.

He was coming off a streak of three homers, two doubles, and eight RBIs in the last two games.

In the first inning Tuesday, he did it again. He put the ball against the metal fence behind the left-field bleachers for another home run. Show already had allowed a lead-off homer to Dave Martinez. Before he would face Dawson again, he would allow a homer to Noce. In their eight games this year--the Cubs have won seven--Chicago has out-homered the Padres, 20-2.

Thus it was that with one out in the third, amid great commotion, Dawson stretched his 6-foot 3-inch frame over the right side of the plate. The first pitch was outside, in the dirt, ball one. The next pitch was outside but closer, and Dawson chased it for strike one.

“That’s my biggest weakness,” said Dawson before the game, stunning those who thought no such thing existed. “Sometimes I can’t stay away from that borderline pitch.”

The next pitch was not borderline. It was directly at the fat part of Dawson’s blue helmet.

If he wasn’t so quick, it would have hit him on that helmet. But he was able to turn so that the ball missed the ear-flap and found the face.

He crumpled, covering his eyes while the crowd covered its mouths. There were a few seconds of silence, during which both Cubs and Padres rushed to the prone Dawson.

“It made me sick to my stomach to look down at Andre and see him spit blood,” Maddux said. “It looked like something out of a war movie. I was scared for him.”

There was one who was more scared. Out of the quiet came Sutcliffe, running alone from the dugout, suddenly choosing to charge Show. He reached him for a rare baseball encounter where the parties go mano-a-mano , but could only land a few shoves before it was broken up in a sudden crush of bodies. It was as if because of Sutcliffe everyone suddenly realized they were supposed to be in a fight.

“Everyone feels like they have to protect each other,” said Sutcliffe, strangely quiet afterward.

“What he did was fine,” Michael said. “Usually the pitcher gets away.”

But Show wasn’t out of trouble yet. After a couple of minutes, Dawson was slowly helped to his feet. He looked woozy. But no sooner was he upright than he charged into the quieted group of players looking for Show. He was stopped once, then charged again, finally stopping on the edge of the dugout as Show ran, escorted by umpire Charlie Williams, into the safety of the clubhouse.

Reliever Keith Comstock was hurriedly brought into the game.

“I felt the tension, I felt like I was under a microscope,” he said. “I tried to throw the ball inside like I usually do, but I wasn’t getting it there. I think I was timid. It was incredible.”

The next inning, the Padres’ fourth, after recording two straight strikeouts, pitcher Maddux hit Santiago on his back pocket. Santiago took a couple of steps toward the mound, benches emptied, but Bowa escorted his upset rookie to first base while Maddux and Michael were tossed from the game.

“I understand what they have to do,” Santiago said. “But they must understand what I have to do.”

“Give me a break,” Maddux said. “I’m trying to win the game. I’m 5-7. A few more losses and I’m back at Iowa (Triple A). I was just throwing inside.”

Santiago was so upset that on the very next pitch, from reliever Scott Sanderson, he attempted to steal. He was thrown out to end the inning. There was no sign to steal.

“I don’t know what he was doing,” Bowa said. “He was so mad, he just took off.”

And so it continued, as the Padres fell behind, 7-2, and could never find a rally in a game they were happy just to see end.