Brewers' HR's and HR Etiquette: Is the Crew getting too cocky?

[Oldcity]

Players have "known" the ball was out, only to have it hit off the wall. Have you never seen this happen?

 

And I'd much rather see a guy do a fist pump than stand there and stare at the ball. Braun did that last year in his homer against Lidge, and it was awesome, and it didn't show up the other team.

 

Again, the posing isn't a big deal to me in general, but I just thought with the circumstances that he should have been running much sooner.

[JenksFan5]

The ball traveled 410 feet. It wasn't like it just got over. It was plenty deep into the stands. Braun had absolutely, positively, no doubt that he got plenty to get it out of the park. Unless a gail force wind kicked up, that ball was leaving the yard. In that moment, you can't blame a guy for celebrating even if it is a bit long of a stare. Again, if you have ever hit a homerun, you just know. I've never stared and admired a homerun. That is just not my style. I can't say that I ever hit a homerun with the magnitude of Braun's so in that situation, who knows how I would react.

 

Stop hitting game winning home runs Braun!http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/embarassed.gif

 

 

[Bring Back the Stein]

The piety of the Cardinals' makes me sick. This from an organization that protects alcoholics and steroid abuse and they want to lecture us? Please.

[JJHardy7]

He got it, he knew he got it, and he was unashamed to take a long look at it. Given how classless the Cards have played against us in recent memory, I relished in Ryan's gaze.

 

I agree. I think it's important to also look back at last year and see how the Cards played a part in getting the Brewers off track. This series was huge for the team and the players and they knew that.

 

I'm not going to worry about Braun staring down a potential home run that hits off the wall until it happens. I'm just going to enjoy moments like that hopefully the rest of the season.

 

If the Cardinals fans are upset, don't keep blowing games late against the Brewers at home. It's that simple. The Brewers IMO do need some swagger down the stretch. It's been a long time since the Brewers were in the playoffs and we can't have a bunch of players who are scared of the big moments.

 

I do think if this was in the first few innings it would be out of line, but given the situation it is somewhat understandable.

[MickeyDavis]

It's the kind of thing you can't stand if an opponent does it. Which makes it great when someone on our team does it. This wasn't a scrub player on a last place Brewers team. This was our best player hitting a dramatic 9th inning home run and he watched it for a few seconds.

 

The headline in the St. Louis paper is Bullpen Blows It Again and they didn't even mention Braun's "posing" in the game article.

 

If this gets the Cards all worked up..... good.

[lcbj68c]

I once again repeat it wasn't so much that he stared it, it was that it cleared the fence by 3 feet!!!! What if their was a gust of wind that kept in the ballpark , Braun could have easily been thrown out at 2nd and we could have easily lost the game.

I'm not calling you out, because there have been plenty of people saying it was a wall-scraper, you're just the last one to quote. This was by no means a wall-scraper. It was estimated at 407 feet. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hrtracker The LF gap wall, at it's deepest point is 375. http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/stadium/index?stadium=mlb_2787

 

This gust of wind, a bird could come and fly by and hit the ball are what if's, it's and but's are coconuts, so to speak. It would seem Ryan Braun would know when he hits the ball 407 feet. Considering the CF wall is 400 feet, I have no problem with him not hustling for a "double". Given the trajectory, there was no way this was a double. Speaking to people who were in the ballpark, this was a no-doubter. The fans knew it, Ryan Franklin & the catcher both knew it, given their reactions and Ryan Braun certainly knew it. I think this, "could have been a double" talk is really a non-issue.

 

That said, I dont particularly care for walking the first 5-7 steps, but atleast he started walking that way, as opposed to players who just stand in the box at watch. I also don't understand this "holier than thou" stance that the Milwaukee Brewers players should be different than another organization because "Wisconsin citizens have a lunch pail work ethic". It is what it is, don't take it personal.

[FVBrewerFan]

If Manny Ramirez does it, it's wrong. When Braun or Hall does it it's wrong as well. Let's not have a double standard. I have a problem with the way the game is being played today. Some call it flare, I call it bush league. You also see players on cruise control when they hit a double, lots of things that never would have been accepted in the past. But it's a different era I guess, so I won't get too worked up about it. Prince got hit twice, and I have no doubt at least one of those were on purpose.

[davego]

Just My opinion, but that kind of stuff in sports has never really bothered me. If you can walk the walk...

[Patrick425]

So are all the people who are upset at Braun admiring his HR for 3 seconds also upset every time CC walks off the mound with a fist pump or yelling enthusiastically? Would it be better if Braun would have started running, gave a couple of fist pumps and shouted, "Whooo, hooooo......yessssss." Is Tiger Woods classless when he sinks a big put and does a fist pump half way across the green, or Favre runs down the field and fireman carries Driver off the field? Why is it only unacceptable for a hitter in baseball, but every other athlete including pitchers are get a pass? I just don't get the double standard.

There are differences between a guy posing when hitting a HR and a pitcher getting excited after getting the 3rd out.

 

The pitcher has completed the task. The batter is posing before the ball has even landed. I don't think I would have a big issue with Braun or any other hitter who got excited and pumped their fists and shouted "Whoo, hoooo....yessss" or whatever as they are rounding the bases, after the ball has safely cleared the fence (ala Kirk Gibson). That's just showing excitement, that's not gloating. This kind of blank stare on your face as you stand there and watch the ball just reeks of "Hey everyone, look what I just did. Look at how great I am" and is in poor taste IMHO. I guess I'm just a little more old school and prefer to go by the old cliche - 'act like you've been there before'.

[Team Canada]

I think the point about celebrating a strikeout after the play is over is a valid one. To me, posing = showboat, Kirk Gibson-style fist pumping around the bases = celebration. At least jog down the line.

[MickeyDavis]

Those who say this never happpened in past eras have selective memories. Players from the beginning of baseball have done what Braun has done from time to time. There just wasn't Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight and the Internet for everyone to see it over and over.

[ESPNOwen]

I thought it was silly for Braun to sit and watch the ball fly out. Why give the other team any ammo against you?

[lcbj68c]

He started walking immediately, he did not stop and pose. He started walking and watching with a non-expression on his face. Big difference in my opinion. He did not do a Barry Bonds and stand in the box with his arms raised, he didn't twirl, he didn't lay the bat on the plate and take off his ankle guard. He started walking down the line and watched. What ammunition? If they want to give us baserunners, great. It as if people expect LaRue to pull a Tonya Harding and hire somebody to take him out at the knees outside of the visitor's clubhouse.

[kalle8]

I am used to soccer players celebrations.

I grew up with that stuff:

- batistuta mime of a machine gun

- gilardino playing a violin

- bobo vieri was the first who took away the shirt

- ruben sosa sliding on the grass

- montella doing the airplane

- thomas brolin and his 360 spin

- cassano kicking the corner flag

- alan shearer raised his left hand

- luca toni makes a move with the hand near his ear that in italy stands for "did you get it?"

- robbie fowler sniffing the chalk line like it was cocaine...(actually it was only once but..)

i can go forever with this list becouse every soccer player in the world has now a personal way to celebrate a scoring.

I know there's a ocean (well, actually there is..) between soccer and baseball, but i have no problem at all with (baseball) players posing a bit and/or showing excitement. If they are Brewers I celebrate with them (i wonder if one of us was classy yesterday after braun's shot..) if not breweres, i accept it, and that's it.

[lukevan]

My take is this:

We expect our players to work very hard to be good ballplayers and not to just collect a paycheck but be passionate about winning ball games to get our team to the playoffs and yet we're expecting them to ignore their instinctive reaction to success in big-time situations. I don't think Ryan Braun is cocky, ie he thinks he's better than everybody. A confident person goes into the batters box thinking "I can do this" and then when he does, his reaction is like saying "I knew I could do it and I told you I could." If players can't take pride in their abilities, we lose what makes professional athletes professional athletes.

I have no problem with what Braun did and it doesn't bother me when players from other teams do it. These aren't little leaguers who need to learn life lessons about sportsmanship to take with them as they go into their professions.

As for the home run, it looked like it was gone by quite a bit and Braun knew it was gone.

[Crew2323]

Has anyone seen K-Rod after a save recently? He appears to scream at the top of his lungs, spin around on the mound, gyrate, pump his chest, and point up to the sky. It's not as if it is his first save, or anymore important than any other. If that's not showboating I don't know what is. I don't hear people giving him grief.

 

And yet, Braun gets grief for what he did. If K-Rod isn't lambasted for showboating, I don't view 4 or 5 walking strides out of the box showboating, especially when you consider the circumstances: he hit a homerun to put his team up by one in the top of the 9th, after not leading the whole game, which likely gave them a 4 game sweep of the Cardinals, and pushed their winning streak to 8.

[Patrick425]

players posing a bit and/or showing excitement.

Two different things. I prefer the latter over the former.

[Playing Catch]

I still don't particularly care for what Braun did tonight but on a night where a Cubs' farmhand threw a ball into an opposing team's dugout and ended up putting a fan in the hospital instead, it's hard to argue about "class" and "emotion" for a few seconds worth of staring.

 

First of all, I thought Braun's strut was just this side of acceptable, but barely. I personally dislike it when anybody watches homers, because, for one, it isn't humble (and I like humility), and two because it is antithetical to the golden rule of baseball to always "hustle". But that is beside my point. Retaliation by beaning, or in this case, throwing into a dugout/stands is so far beyond "evening" the score. Hot-Dogging doesn't, in a million years justify throwing into the dugout/stands. It is my opinion that the Cubs' farmhand needs serious suspension. There are thousands of indignities that each of us have to deal with in life, and very, very few of them should be responded to with violence.

[brewerguy71]

I thought it was Bush League too. Great HR, game winner, but it was just as bad as Ramirez in the playoffs last year, or the many Bonds HR's. Mr. Braun is probably getting a very fast reputation as a showboat. I would not be at all surprised, and it would be deserved, if he gets brushed back the next time the Brewers and Cardinals meet.

[MickeyDavis]

Sweeping a 4 game series which included 3 last inning home runs is the ammo. If the additional few seconds of "posing" upsets them as well so be it.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the St. Louis paper didn't mention it at all in their coverage of last nights game.

 

The Cards have more important things to worry about.

[lcbj68c]

Again, he did not pose, he walked and stared. He didn't even stand in the box, let alone flex his muscles, unlike what that schmuck Molina did after throwing out a baserunner the other night.

 

On another note, is something wrong with Pujols pants all the time? After every Brewers home run, he feels the need to bend over and pretend to fix his pants/shoes, as if to say, "I'm not watching this". I've reviewed other home runs and he does this almost every time, as if he is too proud and pretends to be distracted into doing something else.

[Patrick425]

Has anyone seen K-Rod after a save recently? He appears to scream at the top of his lungs, spin around on the mound, gyrate, pump his chest, and point up to the sky. It's not as if it is his first save, or anymore important than any other. If that's not showboating I don't know what is. I don't hear people giving him grief

First of all, again, K-Rod has completed his objective when he "celebrates" and he's showing excitement, not posing. Secondly, why do we keep bringing up what others do and comparing it to what Braun did? It sounds like my son. So and so is allowed to say swear words, and so and so doesn't have to make his bed. Do you want to be like so and so, or do you want to be better than so and so?

[TauPentaRei]

this thread is great. it should be used as an example in a college rhetoric course to see how much language can be used to describe such a *relatively* small moment in time.

 

i think i have read - definitely skimmed - everything here... and aside from identifying the need for the polling function, so people can just vote and get out, i think we're still missing the point.

 

Braun was rightfully admiring his own handiwork... the way a carpenter tips a rocking chair back and smiles at it before it leaves the shop.

 

Braun did not open his mouth to bark at the pitcher; he did not carry his bat with him around the bases; he did not turn and grin into the Cardinal's dugout; he did not jump up to land on home plate with both feet.

 

Frankly, if Braun did not show that exact type of satisfaction and pride at that precise moment - I would think something was wrong with him. No amount of Ned & Ted meetings is ever going to affect the emotion that is perfectly unbridled at the perfect moment.

[homer]

I know for a fact that if the Brewers were swept by the Cubs and Ramirez did the same thing this board would be up in arms. In that case I would have the same opinion: it's not cool to show up the other team and in baseball what he did was showing up the other team even though I don't think it's worth getting upset about. This is not soccer, this is not golf, this is not sumo wrestling - it's baseball. Like it or not there are different standards and traditions.

[MickeyDavis]

I can't believe some really feel he was "showing up" the Cards.