It’s On: Dallas Braden Threatens Alex Rodriguez With a Fistfight

Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden is still complaining about Alex Rodriguez walking on the pitcher’s mound, two weeks after the incident. And now Braden’s upped the ante and threatened Rodriguez with a fistfight the next time the A’s and Yankees meet. All because Rodriguez walked on a pile of dirt.

Hey, isn’t there an unwritten -- or an actual written -- rule against threatening another player with “settling” things with “knuckles,” as the interview puts it?  And when is MLB going to do something about these repeated threats? Or are they too busy patrolling the game over such important issues as managers wearing hoodies?

Here’s the story. Mychael Urban of CSNBayArea.com talked to Braden before Wednesday’s game and asked him about the issue:

Mychael Urban: What people do want to see is what’s in your head regarding Alex Rodriguez. I was on the air the day it happened, and I said, “I just fell in love with Dallas all over again.” I pitched in college; if somebody did that to me I would have done the exact same thing. After the game, when you said, “If he does it again, there’s going to be repercussions…” I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I said, “Where Dallas comes from, the 209, they don’t settle things with message pitches, they settle them with knuckles.” Is that what you were talking about?

Dallas Braden: Well, I mean that’s pretty much the long and the short of it. You know, on a serious note, obviously there’s things that are going to have to happen — just out of respect for my teammates, out of respect for the game. I think he’s probably garnered a new respect for the unwritten rules, and people who hold them close to their game. But yeah I think you’re right — we don’t do much talking in the 209.

Can’t say I’ve ever heard an interview quite like that, where a so-called professional admiringly suggested that physical violence is such a good idea. You’re a real prince, Mychael Urban!

Also can’t say that I’ve ever heard a ballplayer threaten a fistfight over something so trivial, especially when he himself is violating the unwritten rule about how nobodies shouldn’t talk trash about superstars.

And I have to wonder what Braden’s Oakland teammates -- and what GM Billy Beane and manager Bob Geren  -- think about how Braden seems to have such a single-minded obsession on this issue, at a time where his pitching has deteriorated. Since the April 22 incident, Braden has lost two games in a row, and seen his ERA jump from 2.77 to 4.14.

As for the “we don’t do much talking in the 209″ (the Stockton, CA area), Braden can’t seem to shut up about this. Two weeks -- and two losses -- later -- he’s still fulminating over A-Rod disrespecting him, throwing insults his way every chance he can get. I  haven’t seen somebody cling so ferociously to extending his fifteen minutes of fame since Levi Johnston.

I know that A-Rod seems to be fair game as a target (as sportswriter Tracy Ringolsby has shown, you can even wrongly accuse Rodriguez of causing an Enron-like pension disaster with Texas Rangers employees, and nobody in the mainstream media will speak a word in defense of A-Rod!) But at what point does MLB step in and do something about Braden’s threats?

It was bad enough that Braden got away with promising a future purpose pitch in the postgame the day of the event. But he just keeps on talking and talking and talking to the media about this, and raising the stakes each time around. The Monday after the incident happened, Braden spoke to Sacramento sports radio hosts Grant Napear and Mike Lamb on KHTK. He complained then that:

It’s a slap in the face to the organization, to my teammates and to myself. Ultimately, he’s making a mockery of the game I love. That’s just not going to be stood for… The take home message was that we are not going to just stand idly by and let certain guys that think they are above the game or better than the game just kind of take over and turn our facility or turn our franchise into a whipping boy. That’s not what we are about here.”

Who’s putting himself above the game right now with threatening fisticuffs over trodding on sod? Braden or Rodriguez?  Also,  if you remember the looks on the faces of his Oakland teammates at the time he threw his temper tantrum, they sure didn’t look like they were thinking “you go, guy” over A-Rod’s violation of one of MLB’s gazillion unwritten rules. No, they seemed as confused as everybody else was at the time over what Braden was having a childish hissy fit over.

It’s that it’s a bit of a stretch, to put it mildly, for the pitcher to say that what Rodriguez did “is a slap in the face to the organization, to [Braden's] teammates” and to Braden. “Ultimately, he’s making a mockery of the game I love,” he claimed. Sounds like Braden needs to stop the melodrama already -- he makes Morrissey look stoic.

In that April 26 interview, Braden claimed, “For me, it ended as quickly as it began. There are no underlying issues here. There is no bad blood. I have no ill-will toward the guy.” Then on May 5, he admitted he didn’t like Rodriguez -- and never did:

I’m not a fan of his antics, obviously what he displayed wasn’t the first display of his lack of respect for the game or those playing it, so that never sat well with me. He’s just an individualistic player. That’s his approach to the game, he plays for the name on the back, and I don’t know if he’s noticed, but he doesn’t have a name on the back over there. He should play for the name on the front a little more.

Hmmm. Rodriguez was once the best shortstop of his generation, who had the chance to go down in history as the best shortstop of all time. Yet when he was traded to the Yankees in 2004, the first thing he did was switch positions from shortstop to third base, out of deference to Derek Jeter, arguably his defensive inferior. If that wasn’t A-Rod playing for the name on the front of his jersey, then nothing is.

On the other hand, I can’t say I’ve ever heard any athlete whine so much about being disrespected, and making it all about him, as much as Dallas Braden has -- surely an unwritten rule is being violated here. And where does Braden get off threatening a fellow ballplayer -- let alone a superstar -- with a fistfight over such a trivial issue?  MLB needs to do something about this -- now -- before things get even uglier.

Lighten up, Francis.

Photo by Kimberly*