25. Crosstown Beatdown

Date: 5/20/2006
Game: Regular Season Game vs. Chicago Cubs
While you might not consider getting sucker punched a noteworthy moment, the Cub-Sox brawl of '06 was the ultimate validation for the South Siders. Chicago's always been a Cubs town (and likely always will be), but for a moment in the mid-2000s, the jean skirt-wearing bleacher creatures of the North Side traded their vodka-filled Gatorade bottles for A.J. Pierzynski t-shirt jerseys. "Go Cubs Go" gave way to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" as the Windy City's official summer anthem and, for an instant, Chicago was a Sox town. Michael Barrett's cold-cocking of Pierzynski was as much about jealousy as it was about being shoulder-crashed into the dugout. The Cubs were losing, the Sox were champs, and the brawl was a jolted domestic disturbance from the city's ex-lover.