Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that always hooks it up with a healthy portion of baseball history, strange names, and baseball trivia.

We're like that Chipotle worker who gives you double meat, but charges you the regular price - and sometimes, we even throw in the guac for free.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a former MVP with anger issues.

If we’re being honest with ourselves - pretty much every baseball fan loves a good brawl.

It’s intense, it’s exciting, IT GETS THE PEOPLE GOING.

Whether it’s the Dodgers going into the stands at Wrigley or Nolan Ryan unleashing a world of pain on Robin Ventura - fighting has always been apart of the game.

Kevin Mitchell got in plenty of scraps over the years, and he was never afraid to throw hands, even when it was totally unnecessary. 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he was an all-star in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

When he was 24, Mitchell was on the rowdiest team of all time aka the ‘86 Mets.

He was in San Diego with the Padres for a cup of coffee, and then finished out the ’87 season with the San Francisco Giants.

Once he was in SF, Kevin really started to hit his stride.

In ’89 Mitchell had the best season of his life - hitting 47 bombs, winning the MVP and finishing with a 1.023 OPS.

The Giants also made it to the World Series that year, but got swept by the A’s.

Mitchell was outstanding with the bat during his time in ‘Frisco, but he was also a BEAST defensively.

We’ve all seen his legendary barehanded catch from that year probably about 800 times.

After that ‘89 season, though, Kevin was never able to recapture that level of performance.

He did have two very good seasons for the Reds in the early 90’s which led to him signing a MASSIVE deal with the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in ‘95.

The Japanese team apparently shelled out somewhere around $4 million at the time, which made Mitchell the highest paid player in NPB history.

It was a great accomplishment, but it was short lived, and this is when things started unravelling a bit.

About two months into the season the Mitchell and the Hawks got into a contract dispute because Kevin was sitting out with a “sore knee” and the Hawks didn’t want to pay him for the month of May.

He left the team, and bounced around in the big leagues for the next few years.

Maybe Kevin had pent up anger from the Hawks situation, or maybe he was just frustrated that he couldn’t perform at the highest level anymore, but whatever it was, it seemed to make him want to fight people.

In ’97, Mitchell got in a scuffle with one of his teammates, Chad Curtis, over some loud rap music that Curtis didn’t like to the lyrics of.

They exchanged a few punches, and it ended with Mitchell throwing Curtis over a ping-pong table.

And honestly, I’m totally cool with this one - just glad SOMEONE beat Chad Curtis’ ass - guy is a total f**kin creep.

In ‘99, Kevin got arrested for assaulting his father during a heated argument.

Then in 2000, he took shit to the next level.

Mitchell made a baseball comeback with the Sonoma County Crushers.

During a game against the Solano Steelheads, pitcher Jim Converse threw behind Mitchell, and he wasn’t too fond of that.

Kevin charged the mound and punched Converse.

The owner of the Steelheads, Bruce Portner, started chirping and cursing at Mitchell.

Kevin responded by punching Portner in the face, resulting in a black eye.

Portner did get fined for the incident, but that was pretty much the nail in the coffin for Kevin’s career.

BASEBALL TRIVIA

Find the answer in the bottom of this email!

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

“Dud” was a man of many names.

His real name appears to be Ernest Holford Lee, but when he signed with the St Louis Browns in 1919, he gave the name Ernest Lee Dudley.

Then, by the end of his career, he was known by Ernest “Dudley” Lee.

He was always celebrated for his glove way more than his bat, but he had a pretty prolific career in the minor leagues.

Over 17 years he played for a handful of teams including the Hollywood Stars, Chattanooga Lookouts, and the Tulsa Oilers.

Had he been able to consistently hit in the big leagues, he would’ve been known much better today.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Seagull: Dave Winfield gets arrested

• The Killer: Ty Cobb’s mom commits a murder

• The Sneaker Ring: Ex-Pitcher’s seven-figure fraud scheme

BASEBALL TRIVIA ANSWER: Frank Robinson

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER: Fenway Park