(Updated July 3, 2020)
On July 3, 1967, the eve of Independence Day in St. Louis, the Cardinals and Reds put on an explosive display using fists instead of fireworks.
In the first inning, the Reds were humiliated when the Cardinals built a 7-0 lead in support of Bob Gibson.
With two outs, Lou Brock attempted to steal second.
He was unsuccessful, but to the Reds it was an unnecessary attempt to pile on.
“A guy who tries to steal with a seven-run lead has to be nuts … Our club has pride,” Reds shortstop Tommy Helms said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We don’t like to be shown up.”
When Brock next came to bat, leading off the fourth with the Cardinals still ahead 7-0, reliever Don Nottebart drilled him with a pitch.
Gibson knew what to do next. When Tony Perez led off the Cincinnati fifth, Gibson unleashed a fastball toward Perez’s ear. Perez dived to the dirt to avoid being hit.
In his book “Stranger to the Game,” Gibson said, “My first pitch buzzed past Perez’s ear, which should have been an indication that I wasn’t trying to hit him. If a pitcher is trying to hit a batter, the last place he wants to throw the ball is at the head because it’s the easiest thing to move. When I wanted to hit somebody, I threw slightly behind him because a batter will instinctively jump backwards when he sees the ball coming toward him.”
Added Gibson, “The brushback of Perez was merely a message to lay off Brock.”
Broiling hot
On the next pitch, Perez flied out to right. On his way to the dugout, he crossed in front of the mound and said something to Gibson that the pitcher described as “uncharacteristically nasty.”
Gibson took a few steps toward Perez. So did Cardinals first baseman Orlando Cepeda. This star-studded convergence of future Hall of Famers caused both benches to empty.
No punches were thrown, but just when it appeared order was being restored, the Reds relievers came storming onto the field from the bullpen. They were led by Bob Lee, a hulk who made a beeline for Cepeda.
“Lee started calling me names,” Cepeda said.
Said Lee: “I came in from the bullpen because it looked to me as if Cepeda was going to swing at Perez. I grabbed Cepeda and shoved him out of the way.”
In Cepeda’s biography, “Baby Bull,” Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver said Lee “ran in to where we were standing and said, ‘Cepeda! I want you, Cepeda!’ Then Orlando smoked him. This ignited the worst fight I was ever in.”
Gibson recalled in his autobiography, “As Lee was looking around and ranting, Cepeda tapped him on the shoulder and coldcocked him with a single punch.”
Said McCarver: “Bob Lee sure got more than he wanted when he went after Orlando.”
Lee told a different version. “I didn’t swing at anyone and nobody hit me,” Lee said. “Cepeda took one swing at me. I couldn’t get at him, or I would have put his lights out.”
Out of control
If the words between Gibson and Perez lit the fuse, the altercation between Cepeda and Lee set off the explosion.
According to the book “El Birdos,” Cepeda punched Pete Rose three times in the back of the head.
“Rose was like a wild man after being sucker-punched by big Orlando Cepeda,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. “He was swinging in all directions and not missing too often.”
Gibson wrestled with Helms as the fight spilled into a dugout. When Rose and others went to Helms’ rescue, Gibson began grabbing Reds players in the dugout and hurled them, one by one, onto the field. Cardinals outfielder Bobby Tolan, watching from the top dugout step, dived into the pile of brawlers to help Gibson.
“I actually got in some good licks on Rose and Helms,” Gibson said.
Said Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck: “I’ll never forget the sight. There was Gibson in the Reds’ dugout visibly manhandling about three Reds and tossing them bodily out of the dugout and onto the field.”
When Nottebart grabbed McCarver, Brock “planted a punch” on the Reds pitcher, “leaving his calling card in blood,” the Dayton Daily News reported.
Lou Smith of the Enquirer described the free-for-all as “the wildest this writer witnessed in more than three decades of writing baseball. It was a lulu.”
According to multiple published accounts, it took 20 St. Louis policemen 12 minutes to break up the fights.
When Reds first baseman Deron Johnson saw a policeman confront manager Dave Bristol, Johnson said, “Don’t you draw a stick on him,” the Dayton Daily News reported.
One policeman, Robert Casey, suffered a dislocated jaw in the fracas. “I don’t know whether I was hit by a fist or an elbow,” Casey said.
McCarver said, “Bristol threw a punch and broke Casey’s jaw.”
About 25 players and coaches were treated for wounds, mostly cuts and bruises. Among the injured: Gibson (jammed right thumb), Helms (chipped tooth), Nottebart (facial cuts) and Bristol (gashed leg).
The eyeglasses of Cardinals second baseman Julian Javier were shattered and he had to wear reading glasses the rest of the game. “He said he could see the ground balls, but not the pop flies,” Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst said.
Lee was the only player ejected.
Gibson, who was crafting a perfect game (the first 13 batters were retired, nine on strikeouts) before the fights began, stayed in, lasted 7.2 innings and got the win in a 7-3 Cardinals victory. Boxscore
Gibson said the fight “lit a fire” in the Cardinals and helped propel them to the pennant and the World Series championship that season.
Said Brock: “We hadn’t been going well and that fight really woke us up.”
RetroSimba 
Hahaha –
I was at that game, and it was a total riot to watch. Everything written here is true, as far as I recall. We were totally amazed to watch this happen. I still remember the Cardinals having that 7-0 lead and Brock stealing 2B, Gibson’s pitch. Perez gave some kind of look back at Gibson, I can tell you. Then Perez “stopping by the mound” on his way back, and Cepeda rushing toward the mound. I can see the bullpens emptying, and fights going on all over the field. All I can add is that I recall Alvin Jackson was getting beat up in the 3B dugout, and Gibson went in to take on his attackers.
Like any brawl, it was difficult to tell all that was going on – but all of us in the stands enjoyed the whole spectacle. A fight between the great Cardinals 1967 team and the early stages of the Big Red Machine – how many can say that?
I also was in attendance on April 22, 2000 at Comiskey Park when the White Sox and Tigers got involved in not one, not two, but THREE melees in one game!
Ohmygod, was THAT one a hoot! It happened also that Chris Singleton was 5-for-5 that day, but who noticed? It was a beanball war. I recall Dean Palmer getting tossed after the first fight – and then he came back out for the later fights! Magglio Ordoñez was cornered near 2B by two Tigers and had to kick his way out of a scrape. Detroit Catcher Robert Fick I always considered a criminal for the way he cheap-shotted people and then flipped the RF fans the bird as he left after being ejected. With 2 outs in the 9th, when the Sox were one HBP behind in the “standings,” we were saying that Bobby Howry only had this one batter left, that if he was to do something, he’d best do it now – when, all of a sudden, he hit the batter, Shane Halter, and we were off to the fights again! We were SO ready for that one!
3 Tigers and 2 White Sox were hit by pitches during the game, and some other chin music was offered up along the way. The umps really had their hands full that day. We had really great seats for watching that day, above 3B in the 2nd row. But there was so much going on at once – fights literally all over the infield, but I can’t recall any fighting in the dugouts like in 1967. I DO recall seeing Dean Palmer coming out of the passage behind the dugout for the last and thinking, “Oh, man, is HE going to get nailed for that!”
See http://sportslawnews.com/archive/Articles%202000/WhiteSoxTigersBrawl.htm
But the article is wrong – there were THREE fights, not two fights that day. There were 11 ejections and 16 suspended. I looked around the internet, and all of them say two fights – but I assure you there were three. With FIVE guys getting plunked, how could there only be two? I think the news people just tried to not play it up too big – and only the people there would really know.
With two outs in the 9th, doing it again, we all got a feeling of satisfaction, that our team hadn’t let it pass without getting even. One last time.
That was THE legendary fight in Chicago. So I got to be in attendance at two of baseball’s greatest brawls. Somebody had to be! I told people at the Sox game, “Oh, you should have seen the fight in 1967 between Bob Gibson, Orlando Cepeda, Tony Perez and the Cardinals and Reds – now THAT was a brawl! People came out of the stands, and a cop even got a broken jaw!”
Sometimes you just are in the right place at the right time.
Thank you for sharing this remembrance and for reading my blog. It’s terrific to get a firsthand account from someone who was there.
I too was at that Cardinal game and it was in St. Louis not Cincinnatti. Of interest to note is that the fight lasted 20 minutes yet with Gibson on the mound the game was finished in 2 hours and 20 minutes
John: Thank you for your comment. What a sight that must have been. _ Mark
This was the first major league game I ever went. I always wondered what caused that brawl. I was almost 9 at that game and now I’m 55. It only took me 46 years to find out.
Thank you for your comment. I can imagine what a lasting impression that game made on a 9-year-old fan!
I was there at 11 years old. My father took me to see Bob Gibson pitch “my favorite player at the time”. Well, we got our money’s worth. It was amazing! Gibson lost his perfect game to that point because of hitting someone so hard he jammed his pitching thumb “right thumb”. I remember him being in the opposing teams dugout hitting and tossing people out. Thanks for the article and great remembrance of what was an unbelievable memory for an 11 year old.
It is awesome that you attended that game and saw the fight. Thanks for sharing your eyewitness account.
[…] a broken tooth for the Reds’ Tommy Helms and a jammed finger for Gibson. One policeman had a dislocated jaw. Bob Lee was the only player ejected from the game, and that was for illegally entering the field of […]
[…] a broken tooth for the Reds’ Tommy Helms and a jammed finger for Gibson. One policeman had a dislocated jaw. Bob Lee was the only player ejected from the game, and that was for illegally entering the field of […]
I, too was at the game. Before the game I got the autograph of a Reds reliever, yep Bob Lee, still have it. I remember everybody standing on their seats cheering and when the gates opened to let in the police everyone starting booing. Quite a sight for a young 12 year old.
Thanks, Randy. It’s pretty special that you still have that Bob Lee autograph. What a great link to a memorable and unusual game.
I was listening to the game and I recall Jack Buck saying, “Dave Bristol has a St. Louis policeman on the ground and is punching him in the face.”
Thanks for the insight!
I have an old college friend who has an audio recording of this game…and the brawl. Unfortunately, I have lost track of him. It would be a great recording to put on your blog site!
You’re right. That would be a treasure.
As a kid, I was listening to that game with my Dad. I remember it was in the 5th inning, Jack Buck always did innings 5, 6, and 7. I remember Jack describing a Cardinal player being thrown into the dugout. After a few minutes Harry Caray injected that it was “Little Al Jackson” that had been thrown into the dugout. Harry all but took over the blow by blow description of the events on the field, as he told us the St. Louis Police was now on the field. He no sooner said that, and I heard him yell as only Harry could, “Cepeda hit a cop. Cepeda hit a cop.” I have relayed this story to many over the years.
Thank you very much for this vivid account.
I just read here on the internet that pitcher Bob Lee ran onto the field looking for Cepeda, and Cepeda tapped him on the shoulder. When Lee turned around to see who it was, Cepeda decked him with one punch. This was one account of the brawl and I wonder if anyone can back that up about Lee vs. Cepeda?
I found in Orlando Cepeda’s biography, “Baby Bull,” an account of the fight from Tim McCarver, who says Cepeda hit Bob Lee. I have updated my story to add McCarver’s comments.
I had a great time reading this story. The variety of accounts of the brouhaha really shows how crazy it must have been. Thanks for keeping the history alive and kicking up the dust!
And Bob Gibson was and is a force of nature!
Thanks. I’m glad you enjoyed reading this. It was one of my favorite stories to research. Like peeling an onion, the story revealed multiple layers to it as I researched.
Good stuff!
“A convergence of future hall of famers… ‘
Thanks for reading and for commenting, Bill.