One of my favorite Sox games. No, Zimmer wasn't the instigator by any stretch, haha. Pedro had been doing it all game long, buzzing batters in the box, flashing the cutthroat sign, pointing at the Yankeee bench, and finally resorting to beaning batters. Zimmer was just standing up for his team. Those were the days we had a real rivalry, not the sterile, corporate games people watch nowadays.
And in all fairness to Zimmer, he got hit in the head by a pitch way back when he was in his 20's, so he probably was triggered by that trauma.
And did you know that Zimmer is actually in the Sox hall of fame? Not many people knew that- he was a great, but up and down manager.