In a Spring training game with the Rangers on March 21, , Maddox was hit by a pitch from Jim Bibby in the first inning. In the third, Maddox's bat "slipped" out of his hands toward Bibby on the pitchers mound. In the sixth, Stan Thomas fired a pitch over Maddox's head. In the seventh, Yankees pitcher Mike Wallace retaliated by throwing two pitches close to second baseman Dave Nelson's head. The second one knocked him down, causing both benches to clear. The whole situation was incited by negative comments about Billy Martin that Maddox had made in the press a week earlier.