In the world of sports, it’s hard to always keep your composure. With tensions and pressure at an all-time high, it is bound to make some people break. For players it feels as though losing of course tends to feel like the end of the world, so most athletes handle defeat with some frustration, while others completely lose it. Sometimes their frustration completely takes over and they break equipment, damage the environment, and publicly ruin their legacy forever.
Golf
Back in 2019 during the Saudi international tournament, Sergio Garcia completely destroyed five greens in a single round. After Garcia was frustrated with a string of bad putts and his score slowed climbing, he let his temper completely take over. He then proceeded to take all of his anger out on the course with him, smashing his putter repeatedly into the greens, gouging them, scuffing them, and ripping up the turf for not just one hole, but five different holes. He was then disqualified from the tournament after a group of players behind him complained to the officials about the severely damaged and unplayable greens. Even though he made a public apology, he will forever be seen as the man who threw a tantrum on a professional course. He has since been banned from the golf course and may never return no matter the circumstances of the event being held there.
Baseball
In 2000, Carlos Perez was a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers and was taken out of the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks after not playing to his best potential that game. Perez proceeded to march to the dugout, grab a heavy wooden bat, and smash a massive plastic water cooler to pieces and, doing this, sprayed orange Gatorade all over the dugout. There was a clip of his outburst shown on live television during the game and it became an instant classic highlight of sports rage.
In 2017, Bryce Harper was an outfielder, primarily playing in right field for the Washington Nationals. During a game against the San Francisco Giants when Harper was up to bat the pitcher Hunter Strickland who had tension with Harper decided to get revenge. Three years after their playoff game in 2014 where Harper hit two home runs off of Strickland, he never forgot about it and got his revenge by hitting Harper with a 98mph fastball right to his hip. In return Harper charged the mound and tried to throw his helmet at Strickland and proceeded to throw punches. Players from both of the dugouts rushed onto the field trying to stop the fight but only made it escalate and other players ended up getting hurt until the umpires got it to break up. Both Harper and Strickland got suspended from games, Harper for four and Strickland for six.
WSH@SF: Benches clear between Nationals, Giants
Tennis
In 2012, during the Australian Open, player Marcos Baghdatis smashed all his rackets. After he started losing during a big match, he proceeded to sit on the bench and smash his racket on the ground. He then reached into his bag and destroyed three more in just 30 seconds, with two of them still being brand new. Everyone just watched in utter silence and was completely stunned. Because of this, he even received a code violation, and it went viral globally.
Boxing
In 1997, during a heavyweight boxing rematch between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, Tyson bit a chunk of Holyfield’s ear off. The fight began as usual with both of them throwing punches at each other but the tension of the fight rematch quickly escalated. When Holyfield was winning by landing punches and controlling much of the fight, Tyson continuously kept getting more and more frustrated as he kept getting injured. By the time the third round was almost over Tyson was holding Holyfield in a clinch where they were grabbing hold of one another and bit his right ear and spit the piece onto the boxing ring. After being cleared to continue by the refs and the injury was assessed the fight continued and as soon as the fight resumed Tyson bit Holyfield’s left ear which led to Tyson being disqualified.
Mike Tyson Bites Holyfields Ear in Fight
