Did Astros coach spark brawl by insulting A’s player’s mother? Dusty Baker said he’ll look into it

The Houston Astros and Oakland A’s had a bench-clearing brawl on Sunday after Oakland outfielder Ramon Laureano got hit twice, then jawed with Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron, leading to the melee that can’t make MLB commissioner Rob Manfred very happy.

But what was said in that exchange that escalated everything?

Ex-Astros beat reporter Jose de Jesus Ortiz reports that he spoke to a source who said that “Laureano charged toward Alex Cintron because Cintron mentioned Laureano’s mother in a bad way. In Latino culture, those are fighting words.”

He also said Laureano “is one of the nicest men alive,” perhaps implying it might take something really insulting for him to react that way.

The person who told me this described Laureano is one of the nicest men alive. Remember Laureano knows many folks in the Astros organization. https://t.co/KvtDJ5MZoa

— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) August 9, 2020

A’s manager Bob Melvin concurred that it would take something “offensive” to spark Laureano:

Oakland #Athletics manager Bob Melvin: "Ramon doesn’t go over there unless something completely offensive came out of that dugout … That person should get suspended." https://t.co/ITbhzydczf

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 9, 2020

And Astros manager Dusty Baker said that he doubted that Cintron would say that, and that he’d “check with” Cintron to see if that’s what was really mentioned:

Dusty Baker says he doesn’t know if Alex Cintron mentioned Ramón Laureano’s mother while yelling at him before Laureano charged him. But Baker says he learned the hard way how different it is when you mention a Latino’s mother. He vowed to check on the matter. pic.twitter.com/4tHvoSkIWZ

— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) August 9, 2020