St. Louis Cardinals: Revisiting the 2010 Cards-Reds brawl

Ten years ago, Yadier Molina stood up for his team after Brandon Phillip’s egregious comments about the St. Louis Cardinals. What happened next was one of the most infamous moments in baseball history.

Last Monday marked the decade-long anniversary of perhaps the ugliest moment of the 2010’s St. Louis Cardinals.

A tight division race between the Cardinals and a resurgent Cincinnati Reds squad turned heated when Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips used some rather unfriendly language when discussing our team before the game.

Here’s some of what Phillips said:

“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ’em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear — I hate the Cardinals.”

It’s quotes like this where one might ask, “Tell us how you really feel.” Well, Yadier Molina did.

The biggest impact this had, of course, was Johnny Cueto getting pinned to the netting and beginning to kick wildly at players. In doing so, he kicked Jason LaRue repeatedly in the head and Chris Carpenter in the back. Those kicks to the head (around the 1:20 mark in the video) would end LaRue’s career and leave him with concussion symptoms to this day.

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I don’t know about you, but if that’s not some form of aggravated assault, I don’t know what is.

Recently, Rob Rains of KSDK caught up with LaRue, who has since moved on from the brawl. In the article, Rains asked if Cueto ever apologized:

“Hell no,” LaRue said. “That’s the sad thing. He never reached out and apologized. He just thought everything was OK. To me, that tells you exactly what type of a person he is. He’s not a good person. He’s not a guy you want on your team. He’s not a good guy. That’s the easiest way I can say it. That’s the truth and that’s what people need to hear.

Stay classy, Johnny Cueto.

The Cardinals would sweep the Reds in this series, but Cincinnati would win the division in 2010 as St. Louis would falter in August and September. If there was any karma back then, it came in the form of 2011. The Reds would finish 79-83 while the Cards captured their 11th World Series win.

Poetic justice.