It's easy to say that Fielder was out of line, getting hit, whether intentionally or not, is part of the game, blah blah blah.
But here's why I'm backing Prince (aside from the fact that he's a Brewer):
1. The pitch, supposedly, was payback for the Brewers grazing Manny Ramirez two innings earlier. But when Manny got hit, it wasn't a purpose pitch. It was an inside pitch that got away from Brewers reliever Chris Smith and hit Manny in his hockey goalie-sized jersey.
2. If you give the Dodgers the benefit of the doubt and assume that Smith did try to hit Manny, fine. But get your retaliation the next inning, not two innings later. If you're out with some friends and a guy from another group comes up and smacks you in the face, you don't wait half an hour then ask one of his buddies to step outside.
3. Fielder and Guillermo Mota, who hit him with the pitch, were teammates last year in Milwaukee. Undoubtedly that added to Fielder's frustration.
Mota was ejected after the pitch, but that obviously wasn't good enough for Fielder. In one of the few things that one could hear between the bleeps during Fielder's failed attempt to infiltrate the Dodgers clubhouse was his intention to hit Mota "with my (bleeping) fist!"
Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance. And Ramirez was out of the lineup on Wednesday (he did pinch hit in the seventh, but with runners on base in a three-run game, the Brewers weren't going to throw at him). So the Brewers didn't get a chance to retaliate for the retaliation.
But, I suppose they did get the last laugh in this whole fiasco. The Brewers beat the Dodgers 4-1 on Wednesday to take two out of three in the series.
5 comments:
OK, I have several points - as you could have guessed - about this blog entry.
Firstly, let me get this out of the way: I agree with you that the pitch that hit Manny was in no way a purpose pitch.
But I love how you claim that, should there be retaliation, it should come in the next inning. Oh yes, let's hit Jason Kendall or Jody Gerut, that really sends a message.
And you also say that Fielder wanted to Mota with "his (bleeping fist)" but didn't have the chance. See, you're wrong. He had the chance - when he got hit. That's when you take care of business. Not in the clubhouse, not on the team bus, not at the airport. On the field.
Fielder should take this as a compliment. Being the guy who gets hit in retaliation means he's the best hitter on the team.
Instead, he acted like a big, fat baby.
There was so much wrong with this whole Brew-haha that it's hard to figure out where to start.
1. No, they weren't throwing at Ramirez. Torre should know better.
2. Prince was acting like the immature idiot that he can sometimes be. He knows better. He's been around baseball and ballparks all of his life. Contrary to my original opinion of him, he is a very good player and should have had more class than that.
3. I agree with both perspectives. Generally speaking, retaliate ASAP or forget about it.But Scott has a point that who would care if it was Kendall or Gerut? Basic rule of managment:Address an issue immediately or it isn't important enough to talk about.
4. From what I saw, and I just saw clips since the game was on way after my bedtime, Mota was very quick to leave the field. There's nothing like a good bench clearing brawl. Might have even done the Brewers some good to get excited about SOMETHING even though they were getting waxed. But he seemed to scoot off the field in a big hurry. Smart man with a guy Fielder's size looking for your head.
But Fielder storming through the clubhouses making a huge spectacle of himself is just not something a player ever needs to do.
Ask Mike Piazza just how fast Mota can "scoot."
I could care less about all of this, although I kinda like Prince Fielder and I despise the whole "retaliation" concept. I just wanted to say that I enjoyed the use of the term "Brew-ha-ha."
Brew-ha-ha was coined several years ago by our local journalists. Our team is sometimes affectionately known as the Brew-has instead of the Brew-ers.
I don't get the retaliation thing either. Must be a guy thing. It always reminds me of the little kid saying "Mom, he's looking at me!"
But I do love a good bench-clearing melee just to get the juices flowing again.
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