Tom Barrabi

Every major sport has its share of hard luck losers — the players and coaches who routinely outperform their competition, only to fall just short when it matters most.

Between endorsements and increasingly larger contracts, athletes are earning more money than they ever have before.

There’s no denying that the typical professional baseball game has many dull moments. Even the most diehard fan can have a hard time focusing on those midseason snoozefests during the dog days of August. Still, every once in a while, fans are treated to a phenomenon as rare as it is riveting—the bench-clearing brawl.