Billy Koch Faces Bats For the First Time Since 2004, Fails Again

Billy Koch is back facing bats. Except not how he used to.

Koch was arrested in Florida Saturday morning and charged with Criminal Mischief and Battery of a neighbor. According to the local ABC affiliate:

According to a North Port Police Department report, Koch and his wife approached their neighbor in his Jonah Drive driveway just before 2am, angry over an incident between Koch's stepchild and the neighbor.  The neighbor grabbed a baseball bat to defend himself and the two wrestled while both held the bat.  In the scuffle Koch punched the neighbor in the lip.

The neighbor released the bat, grabbed a shovel and closed his garage door.  After the door closed, Koch hit the garage door with the bat and also hit another neighbor's car with the bat.

Koch won the Rolaids Relief Award in 2002 when the Oakland Athletics used Moneyball to justify blowing Koch's arm out pitching him in 84 games for 93.2 innings. He finished 79 games that season and finished 11-4 with a 3.27 ERA and 44 saves that year. In the offseason, he was traded to the White Sox and was never the same pitcher. He had a 5.66 ERA and only 19 saves in his two years in Chicago and fizzled out after being traded to the Marlins in June of 2004.

Koch, who had a signature chin beard, also had a skin-crawling, muscle-twitching disease. This time, it was a neighbor that caused Koch's skin to crawl.