Miguel Olivo Does a Tyson and Bites Alexander Guerrero's Ear Off

Something you won't believe happened this afternoon during a AAA game.

The Isotopes were playing the Salt Lake Bees when an argument erupted on the mound as Albuquerque was making a pitching change (Jared Massey shared a vine video of this altercation that you can see here).  Veteran catcher Miguel Olivo, who you should apparently not mess with, got into a heated argument with teammate and Dodger prospect Alexander Guerrero.  Then, a brawl ensued soon afterwards in the dugout.

Blood was shed.  According to reports, Olivo bit off a piece of Guerrero's ear; emulating Mike Tyson.

(Pic via MiLB on twitter)

Via Danny Wild at MiLB.com:

Albuquerque second baseman Alex Guerrero needed surgery on his left ear after getting attacked by teammate Miguel Olivo during a dugout fight at Triple-A Salt Lake on Tuesday, and both Salt Lake police and the Dodgers are investigating.

The game was stopped briefly in the eighth inning when Guerrero, the Isotopes' second baseman, and Olivo began fighting in the Albuquerque dugout. Both players were replaced in the lineup. Guerrero, according to agent Scott Boras, "is having plastic surgery on his ear right now," Tweeted Jon Morosi of FOX Sports at 6:39 p.m. ET. Boras indicated the surgery was as a result of Guerrero being bitten by Olivo.

Morosi said police have "gathered evidence about the incident and collected witness statements, according to Boras. Guerrero's recovery timetable is uncertain, Boras said. It's not clear yet how many stitches the surgery will require."

You can check out a bunch of pics of the dugout fight over at StingemBees.com blog.  Smudge provides the best report so far on why this happened:

It goes like this…….The Isotopes defense had their struggles against our base runners. If I were managing my Comp team I would call it laziness…. The Bees advanced runners multiple times because after plays were seemingly over, Isotopes players would wander away from their base and our Bees runners would advance with very little opposition.

A couple times the runners advanced with the ball in C Miguel Olivo’s hand. I got the feeling he was upset that no one was talking to let him know there was a runner, and when they DID scream “runner!”, no one was at the bag to cover a play. …. That is certainly a cluster of plays that got under the skin of Olivo.

The Dodgers issued the following statement:

The baseball operations department is aware of the altercation and is conducting an investigation into the matter. The organization does not condone this type of behavior and will have no further comment at this time.

It should be noted that non-violence isn't exactly an Olivo credo.  He has instigated at least a couple of fights on the field.

• On September 29, 2007 he ran across the diamond and threw a punch at Jose Reyes - starting a bench-clearing brawl.
• On August 3, 2008 he was hit by pitcher DJ Carrasco, so naturally Olivo charged after him.  The benches cleared again.

Olivo is also one tough customer.  Via a wikipedia entry:

Olivo made headlines in early 2010 for having to leave the Rockies' April 29 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at the beginning of the eighth inning to pass a kidney stone. Remarkably, he was able to re-enter soon after and finished the game.

Not only can Olivo pass a stone and not miss a beat, but he will also bite your ear off.

This man is not to be screwed with!

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