Who's the bigger baby Dallas Braden or A-rod

[canjond]

OK - I'll admit I was born and raised a Yankee fan. However, I've also never been one to defend the actions of A-rod. With that being said, I watched the game yesterday where A-rod broke the "so-called" unwritten rule and jogged across the pitchers mound. IMO, what A-rod did was not done to be intimidating, disrespectful, or otherwise disruptive. I just didn't SEE it that way. All I saw was A-rod jogging back to the bag with his head down and taking the most direct route (which, by the way, did not take him directly over the mound, but a little to the back side). So, that beckons the question - who's the bigger baby? A-Rod or Braden?

[ChiefBenderForever]

I have always hated A-rod but he did nothing wrong, he should meet Braden in the street and beat in his head until the ambulance needs to bring him to the ER. The only way to knock some sense into him is to knock him OUT !!

[nolemmings]

Braden may have overreacted in today's kinder gentler game, but I gotta believe had Arod done that with Nolan Ryan on the mound, Ryan would have plucked him right at first base on a pickoff and maybe again next AB. Drysdale would have tackled ARod before he made it back to first, and I don't want to think of what Bob Gibson or Juan Marichal would have done.

[ChiefBenderForever]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Braden may have overreacted in today's kinder gentler game, but I gotta believe had Arod done that with Nolan Ryan on the mound, Ryan would have plucked him right at first base on a pickoff and maybe again next AB. Drysdale would have tackled ARod before he made it back to first, and I don't want to think of what Bob Gibson or Juan Marichal would have done.

You are probably right, but that would be the only thing Braden has in common with any of the above mentioned.

[dani0100]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Braden may have overreacted in today's kinder gentler game, but I gotta believe had Arod done that with Nolan Ryan on the mound, Ryan would have plucked him right at first base on a pickoff and maybe again next AB. Drysdale would have tackled ARod before he made it back to first, and I don't want to think of what Bob Gibson or Juan Marichal would have done.

This assumes that Ryan, Drysdale, or Gibson would have cared that a baserunner touched two inches of the pitching mounds on their way back to first base. I have not heard a single baseball person supporting Braden's contention that it's some kind of unwritten rule of baseball that you don't touch the mound. I've certainly never heard that, and when the likes of Joe Girardi and Derek Jeter have never heard of it either, I'm inclined to say that this is one of those strange things that a young person has picked up from some localized place and then amplified in his head to be a universal rule that everybody knows.

Bottom line: A-Rod is right in this case until you find a person who's got more baseball experience than Joe Girardi and has heard of this crazy notion that Braden has state is an unwritten rule of baseball.

[nolemmings]

Maybe you have not, but I have. Even throwing in little league 40 years ago, we were told never to run over the mound. And remember, those aforementioned pitchers would toss the ball at your head just for digging in the box or, in some cases, trying to bunt on them. Thinking you were strutting on their turf, um, no, I don't think so.

[nolemmings]

Former Mets pitcher and current analyst Ron Darling said "absolutely hitters are not supposed to run over the mound, you stay off it," and that the mound is "the pitcher's place."

But Darling seemed to indicate the fraternization of the game now made Braden's outburst somewhat inconsistent.

"The game's changed," Darling said. "These guys are hugging and kissing each other before the game, they share the same agents, everyone's so happy. It's the country club fraternity of baseball now. They've decided to make this a genteel game. For A-Rod not to know that that's inappropriate, though ... everyone knows that. It's just that all these lines have been blurred. It's a country club game."

Braden said it was part of how he was brought up in the game.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, as old school as managers come, told AOLFanhouse that "a lot of guys" in the game don't know about the stay-off-the-mound code and was in Braden's corner.

"He's been taught right," La Russa said, according to Fanhouse.

Former catcher and FOX analyst Tim McCarver recalled Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, a legendary intimidator, and his viewpoint on hitters coming near the mound, which Gibson called his "office."

"You never come into my office unless you're invited," McCarver said. "And you'll never be invited."

Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/04/25...#ixzz0m5MZ9HwN

I suspect others will chime in as well.

[Batter67up]

I guess the media wants to hype up everything? Before reading this post I didn't even know who Dallas Braden was. I guess he gets his 15 minutes of fame. When I pulled up his stats I had to laugh. I guess when he visits the Hall of Fame he can look at A-Rods plaque and tell his grandkids he got into a skuffle with ARod back in 2010. If it was someone like Clemens, Ryan, or Beckett I could see the media making a story of it. Forget about it and lets play ball.