Pier Six brawl

[George Thompson]

"In my experience, this is primarily a sportswriter's term, though a friend of mine in grad school used it on occasion."  (JL)
I haven't actually heard this expression myself since I last heard it from my father (dead 25 years) and have no memory of ever having heard it from anyone else.

Alice Faber identifies the broadcasters as Gary Cohen and Howie Rose; there is also a Gary Thorne heard on Mets radio.

"For what it's worth, your 1933 cite from the LATimes is a story from New
York/Madison Square Garden."  (SC)  Thanks.  I didn't actually read the story, and missed this point.

Barry's citation from the Helena Independent of Saturday, February 25, 1933 seems to refer to a horse-race, since it refers to "a 16 to 1 shot, . . . In tho SIX furlong second rac[e]".  I wouldn't have expected this.
He has a couple of citations from February 17, 1926 that offer an interesting related expression: "The method in question calls for nothing more elaborate than the pass-word to pier six--hit 'em first and explain afterward. If at all."

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.