Joey Bats has something in common with Graig Nettles, thanks to George Brett

The Royals had no part in Sunday’s throwdown between the Rangers and Blue Jays (or, more specifically, Texas’ Roughned Odor and Toronto’s Jose Bautista), but they’ve had some memorable dust-ups of their own through the years.

Perhaps none more so than the scuffle between George Brett and the Yankees’ Graig Nettles in Game 5 of the 1977 American League Championship Series.

Let’s set the scene. In the late 1970s, baseball featured no fiercer rivalry than Royals-Yankees. The two heavyweights would duel for the American League pennant four times in five years. The Royals didn’t like the Yankees and the Yankees didn’t like the Royals, simple as that.

Brett himself once said, “The Royals and the Yankees hated each other. To this day, whenever I see Lou Piniella or one of those Yankees, we talk about how we hated those guys.”

To say tensions were high for the 1977 ALCS would be an understatement. In Game 2 at New York, KC’s Hal McRae added fuel to an already combustible mix with a hard slide into Willie Randolph at second.

On Sunday, Oct. 9, with the ALCS knotted at two games apiece, the Royals played host to the Yankees at Royals Stadium in a deciding Game 5. The winner would advance to the World Series.

It didn’t take long for the afternoon to explode. In the first inning, Brett rocketed a hard liner over the head of Mickey Rivers in center, scoring Hal McRae. Brett motored around second and it quickly became apparent that he’d be sliding into third about the same time as the throw arrived.

What happens next is best observed in slow motion (2:37 mark on this YouTube clip). Brett comes in hot, delivering a forearm into Nettles on his follow-through at the bag. The contact pushes Nettles back a bit, but the third baseman recovers and delivers a not-so-subtle left-footed kick to Brett’s torso and chin.

Brett pops up and drops a right-handed punch to the top of Nettles’ head, and the benches clear. Players push and shove in a pile for a few minutes before the umps can restore order. Neither Brett nor Nettles is tossed, and the Yankees go on to clinch the pennant with a 5-3 win.

It would be six more years before Brett and the Yankees would add the more well-known and remembered Pine Tar Game to their long list of disputes. But that Game 5 of the ’77 ALCS in Kansas City was a pivotal early entry into the annals of strained relations between the two clubs, highlighted by a punch that longtime Royals fans will never forget.

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Joey Bats has something in common with Graig Nettles, thanks to George Brett."