Fans brawling at sporting events can often be disturbing. But when they’re kids and brothers, it just hits different.
Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Steve Gelbs were on the call Sunday afternoon for the New York Mets spring training game against the Houston Astros. Searching for something interesting to talk about in the fifth inning of a game that was about to get called for rain, the broadcast booth found a talking point in the crowd as two kids were playing some sort of tag-MMA hybrid game.
The play-by-play on this brother vs brother brawl on the @SNYtv broadcast is absolutely killing me 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/cXk3FhRPay
— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) March 3, 2024
“Oh, this is like perfect weather if you’re a kid. It’s hot, it’s raining, it’s gonna get muddy at some point,” Darling said excitedly as SNY cameras showed two young fans play-fighting on The Hill out in right field. “Little brother is giving the big brother all he can handle.”
“He’s getting after it!” Gelbs said as the little brother started running away. “Big brother said, ‘Okay, I’ve had enough.’”
And with that, big brother charged with his hands out and shoved his younger brother to the ground, drawing “Oohs” from the broadcast booth. But as the younger brother got back to his feet with a big grin on his face, he went after his larger opponent with an impressive front kick. Unfortunately, he whiffed, giving big brother the opportunity to aggressively toss him back to the ground.
“Oh, that’s getting rugged,” Hernandez said, while Darling suggested it might be time for the younger brother to get out of the ring. “He likes it,” Hernandez added.
Just in case anyone was concerned that the MMA match became too heated for a spring training baseball game, SNY went back to the kids two minutes later after the mom stepped in. Both kids laughed hysterically as their mom attempted to break up the scuffle. But her timing was probably impeccable, because those bouts between brothers usually swing from laughing to crying in a millisecond.
