A-Rod blasted for breaking unwritten rule

[Betallsports]

So was that Dallas Braden(notes) or Clint Eastwood's character from Gran Torino that beat the Yankees to move his season record to 3-0 on Thursday?

After listening to Braden go on a rant against Alex Rodriguez(notes) for breaking what he considers an unwritten baseball rule, it was pretty hard to tell.

Braden's big beef: In the sixth inning of the A's 4-2 victory, Rodriguez went from first to third on a foul ball by Robinson Cano(notes). His trip back to first took him right over the pitcher's mound, an unspoken no-no that ticked Braden off right away.

After a double play ended the inning, the 26-year-old pitcher immediately started yelling at A-Rod — watch it here — who claimed he didn't know he had done anything wrong
He also claimed he didn't know Braden was talking to him at first.

Said Rodriguez:​

"He just told me to get off his mound. I was a little surprised. I'd never quite heard that. Especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career ... I thought it was pretty funny actually."
​

Said Braden:

"He should probably take a note from his captain over there and realize you don't cross the pitcher's mound in between an inning or during the game. I was just dumbfounded that he would let that slip his mind — being someone of such status."
"I don't care if I'm Cy Young or the 25th man on the roster, if I've got the ball in my hand and I'm on that mound, that's my mound ... He ran across the pitcher's mound foot on my rubber. No, not happening. We're not the door mat anymore."

​

Those weren't the only things that Braden said in his stand against an eventual Hall of Famer. You can read more of them at MLB.com or listen to his interview at the LoHud Yankees Blog.
I'd really recommend that you do both because it's fascinating to see just how worked up Braden got after thinking A-Rod had "disrespected" him with that move.

On one hand, it's nice for A's fans to see that one of their young guns won't cede any ground or be intimidated by one of the best players on the defending world champs. I'm also always up for any time a baseball player breaks cliche-mode and goes off the script.

But on the other, there's something to be said for knowing your spot in the game and earning enough capital to call out a perennial All-Star over something so petty.

Braden may get there one day ... but he's not quite there yet.
​

 

[douglas]

this is the same guy who yelled " I got it " rounding 3rd on a pop out to cause a distraction ? ........

 

[Soriano12]

Would have loved to see Braden come out and pitch in the 7th... guy should learn to control his temper, if some small thing like that already makes him lose his composure on the mound...

 

[Fishhead]

AROD continues to amaze with his outright stupidity.

What classless act this piece of work is............

 

[billhill999]

Braden needs to calm down.

 

[WorldNumberOne]

big fucking deal....

braden is a nobody....

arod can run anywhere he wants... about 600 times , he's run around the bases at the speed of his choice....

 

[VIEJODINOSAUR]

Fuk Gayrod....and his medical staff also....

just another bush league move by him...

 

[Soriano12]

I would have liked to seen the A's respond by drilling the next batter up and having the pitcher look directly at A-Rod.

Yes, would have been a great response: Being up 2runs in the 6th with 1out and put the tying run on base by throwing at him (without having anybody up in the bullpen).
Would have been almost as smart as being rattled by such nonsense after pitching a great game up to this point. hno:

 

[wilheim]

Back when baeball had some tradition what Arod did was a no-no.

A lot of you don't go back that far but it was very common (to observe the rule) in the '40s, '50s and '60s,

Bob Gibson was very well known in protecting what he called his office. He told people to stay the bleep out of my office when something like what happened yesterday occured. Had that been Gibson on the mound, A-Rod would have picked himself off the grass to get back to first. He would have decked him. No question about it. Of course there is only one Bob Gibson..


Pro Football has similar traditions such as the Terrell Owens fiasco in Dallas 10 years back when he was with The Niners.

On September 24, 2000 in Dallas, Terrell Owens showed off his excitement after his two touchdown catches by running from the endzone to midfield and celebrating on the Dallas Cowboys' famous star logo.

The second time Owens made a trip to the star, then Cowboys safety George Teague hit him during the celebration. Teague was ejected for his actions, while Owens was suspended for a week by his head coach and was fined $24,000 which was then equal to a week's pay.

The celebration and subsequent hit were named one of the ten most memorable moments in the history of Texas Stadium by ESPN in 2008.



wil.

 

[wilheim]

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[Bruins4Life]

I remember watching that Cowboys game, and admiring Teague for his actions.

 

[Soriano12]

Imo this situation isn't comparable to the TO incident because Owens was actually showing up the cowboys by doing his celebration, while A-Rod didn't really show up anybody in that situation but was just his usual dumbass self

 

[5teamparlay]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/marinersblog/2011683878_dallas_braden_named_new_mlb_se.html

April 23, 2010
Dallas Braden named new MLB senior VP of policing unwritten baseball rules


Posted by Geoff Baker

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Good morning to all of you from here in friendly Chicago, where Milton Bradley is no doubt in a park someplace sipping on a vanilla latte, admiring the pigeons and soaking in all the fond memories he has of this town. One quick note, for those of you writing in on email last night in a panic about Jack Hannahan: please, no talk about him coming to Seattle for at least another week.
The Mariners are already on record as saying they need Hannahan to get a least 50 at-bats for Class AAA Tacoma before they'll evaluate whether he's ready to face big league pitching or not. By my count, Hannahan would get roughly half those at-bats if he plays a full seven days per week. That means at least two weeks worth of at-bats if he maxes out on opportunities. He's had less than a week in Tacoma. So, while I don't blame anyone who was at the game and saw Hannahan not in the lineup for wondering the obvious question, we should all keep this in mind going forward, please.
Moving on to today's topic, I was pleased to see that Oakland A's pitcher Dallas Braden has been named the new MLB senior VP in charge of policing baseball's unwritten rule book. About time somebody was put in charge. The fact that Braden was actually the guy who appointed himself to the position should not turn anyone off. For one thing, his 10 strikeouts versus the Mariners clearly have him thinking he's Roger Clemens, or, as a lefty, Randy Johnson.
And I mean, who better than those two Hall of Fame potential guys to be given a senior MLB title? Well, OK, maybe not the Rocket (fueled) Man. But don't forget, these are unwritten rules being policed, so there's no reason to expect any rules when it comes to who is to be put in charge of enforcement.
They asked me if I wanted the job, by the way, but I've been too busy appearing on panels of late.
As usual, Alex Rodriguez has no clue about how these apppointment things work. Or, about any of the policies pertaining to baseball, written, unwritten, or otherwise.
Told about Braden's new self-appointment as senior VP of all things unwritten and holy, he replied: "He just told me to get off his mound," Rodriguez said. "I was a little surprised. I've never heard that, especially from a guy with a handful of wins in his career."
Zing!
Should any of us be surprised about this?
Not really. No. As stated today by Jason Turbow, published author and baseball's unofficial historian of all things unwritten, A-Rod has always been "profoundly ignorant of much of the Code.''
That got me wondering, has anyone let A-Rod in on "the Code"? I mean, you've all seen codes before. They can be tricky, which is why we use them in wars. You can't just spell out "This is where we're going to attack the Germans" in plain black and white. It's why the Allies used a lot of dots and dashes and jibberish in their transmissions. Those Germans were pretty smart folk, even back in 1944. Ever driven one of their cars? We're not talking Toyota Tercels here. It takes brains to build engines like the ones you find on a beamer or Mercedes.
So, the codes had to be pretty sophisticated. And I mean, maybe we've got A-Rod all wrong. Maybe he's justy trying to figure the code out.
He gave us his first clue when he started stealing catcher's signs. I mean, if you're going to figure out a code, you've got to see it first. So, one finger means fastball and two fingers is curveball, right?
OK, you see? Now, he's getting started and can move on to more complex stuff. So, when Howie Clark calls for a popup, that means he's going to catch the ball. A-Rod didn't know that a couple of years ago and thought anyone could just join in on calling for it -- even the baserunner. Well, he now knows better. But it's confusing. I mean, I watched Clark play for a number of years and sometimes he'd call for popups he had no chance in the universe at catching.
So, I understand A-Rod's confusion.
And seriously, why not try to whack a ball out of Bronson Arroyo's hand when he's trying to tag you out on your way to first base? They allow that in basketball, don't they? I hear A-Rod was a pretty good all-around athlete growing up. He played football, as well, and we all know what happens if a guy starts carrying the pigskin around like a loaf of bread instead of a baby.
So, believe me, folks, the code is confusing. Just ask the Germans.
But that's why we now have Braden. Could have used him a few weeks back when Cliff Lee sent that pitch sailing over the head of Chris Snyder. I mean, how do you know if a guy's violating the unwritten code on that one? What does the code say about throwing a ball over the head of a guy who just got in your way and gave you an abdominal injury when you've had two previous ones?
I know that in football, or hockey, if you go for the knees of a guy with prior knee injuries, that's a no-no on the Code front.
That's why it's not always easy figuring this Code stuff out. Poor A-Rod has been trying for years, but just keeps getting tripped up.
MLB couldn't even figure the Lee thing out. They suspended him five games, then erased it. No wonder they needed Braden to put himself in charge.
So, how does Braden plan to enforce the rules?
By yelling at everyone, of course.
Even his poor grandmother isn't safe.
"If my grandmother ran across the mound, she'd hear the same thing he heard, period,'' Braden said. "That's the way I handle the game. That's the way I handle myself on my work day."
Wouldn't you like to be an earthworm on the mound for that exchange?
"Hey, grandma! You punk-a$@, $@&! Get your sorry, limp-wristed excuse for a @$% off my damned mound now, or I'll come over and slap your stupid eyewash face into oblivion!''
Remind me to skip next Christmas at the Braden household.
Not sure what Braden through of the Brewers beating up on Jeff Clement, Ronny Cedeno and the Pirates by a 20-0 score. But hey, it's a good thing he pitched yesterday,
Now he's free to fly to this city and buy himself a left field bleacher seat tonight on the South Side. I hear Milton Bradley's back in town and some fans from the North Side might make a special trip to enemy territory just to say hello.
Might be in need of some code-breakers when the Mariners take the field.

 

[wilheim]

I am not saying they are equal in seriousness of breaking traditions in sports. The thing is that players take pride in their territory. A pitcher walks out to the mound every inning and does a little grounds keeping. When an opposing player tramples over it jogging back to a base after a foul ball it has always been considered bad form. Of course Owens' stunt was more serious to the entire Cowboy team and fans.

ARod just wasn't thinking when he did what he did. I am pretty sure he just took the shortest route between two points to get back to first. There are probably plenty of other players that would make the same mistake but none of them are pitchers or catchers.

I remember reading about Gibson and his demeanor when he was on the mound over the years and watching him pitch on TV some back in the 60s.

One story goes more or less like this "I went to the mound once after he'd put a couple men on base," said Dal Maxvill, a 14-year major league veteran and the starting shortstop on the '68 Cardinals. "I started to say something to him, like, 'Things are fine.' He looked me right in the eye and said, 'Get out of here. The only thing you know about pitching is that it's hard to hit.'"

Tim McCarver a fine catcher in his day caught Gibson for the entire decade of the 60s said "I never went to the mound when he was pitching, what is a catcher going to tell someone like him -- how to throw a pitch?! Nobody had to tell him what to do. He was as locked in over a 34 or 35 start season as any pitcher in the history of the game.".

I don't mean to get off topic but am just trying to make the point that baseball has changed in many ways over the last 50 years.

wil.

 

[Betallsports]

Let's face it, they are just Two idiots ( A-Roid & T.O ) :grandmais

 

[TheWolf]

A-rod knows what he is doing........Yanks were losing so he figured hed try to get in his head and rattle him a bit. Pissed him off alright but it didnt help ...lol.

 

[JohnnyMac]

Well, karma took care of that with the double play.

And way to hustle down there to break up that double play, Gay-rod.

 

[PeterGriffin]

It never ceases to amaze me how childish some of these "unwritten rules" are. You blow a gasket because a guy ran over "your" mound? @) Seriously, Braden needs to get over himself.

 

[Doug]

kid has a no hitter thru 8 innings, right now.

 

[wilheim]

big fucking deal....

braden is a nobody....

arod can run anywhere he wants... about 600 times , he's run around the bases at the speed of his choice....

----------------

Opps:

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Dallas Braden has thrown a perfect game for the Oakland Athletics in a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Braden threw his arms in the air after Gabe Kapler grounded out to shortstop for the final out on Sunday.