1.   Players rarely emerge from baseball brawls with serious injuries.

2.   The whims of baseball are such, however, that Canseco and Rhodes, combatants in a baseball brawl on Saturday, were the crucial matchup Sunday.

3.   Baseball brawls are rare in Japan, but Irabu has already learned that teammates are expected to support one another in the United States.

4.   Cal Ripken has survived two sprained ankles and a baseball brawl that left him with a painfully twisted knee.