It was Sunday, April 16. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters were playing in Kyushu. Hawks slugger Julio Zuleta was at the plate when Fighters right-hander Satoru Kanemura delivered a pitch that sailed inside and nailed Zuleta in the middle of his 197-cm frame.
The ticked-off Panamanian charged the mound, tackled the pitcher and got in a few punches before other players broke up the melee. Zuleta was ejected, and a visibly shaken Kanemura also came out of the game.
Both players went out of action for 10 days; Kanemura to the disabled list to recover from the incident, while Zuleta was handed a 10-day suspension from the Pacific League and fined 300,000 yen.