Padres Wynne and Brown Don’t Start After Fighting Before Game Against Reds

Message to those who spent Monday night watching the Mike Tyson-Michael Spinks circus from Atlantic City, N.J.:

Wrong fight.

We switch you to Riverfront Stadium, visiting clubhouse, 5:30 p.m. Chris Brown, a San Diego Padres third baseman who some teammates consider a joke, couldn’t take one and “sucker punched” teammate Marvell Wynne with a right jab to the face, bloodying Wynne’s nose and nearly closing his left eye.

Both players were removed from the starting lineup against the Cincinnati Reds. Last-minute replacements Tim Flannery and Shane Mack combined to go 5 for 9 with 4 runs batted in, as the Padres defeated the Reds, 9-2. Wynne struck out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth.

“Two guys, a misunderstanding, the case is closed,” said Padre Manager Jack McKeon. “This kind of thing happens every day in the big leagues. It’s history.”

Four hours after the fight, Wynne was still seething, not to mention swelling.

“We were just messing around and he caught me with my hands down and hit me in the face, a cheap shot,” Wynne said. “I stuck my face in his locker to say something, and he told me to get my head out of his face. I did, and he sucker punched me. I guess it’s something he’s proud of. This guy is very disliked by a lot of players, and doing that made it worse.”

Brown, with his bruised right hand covered in a sock, was unwilling to even use the word fight.

“It was an altercation, not a fight, and as far as I’m concerned it’s over with,” Brown said.