Cardinals TV announcer calls Brewers disrespectful

[Invader3K]

Why do some people seem to think that if the team has a losing record, they can't have some fun, or put on a bit of a show for their home crowd? Baseball is supposed to be fun and entertaining.

[Thurston Fluff]

i wonder if Prince will think it's as funny when he gets one in the ribs next year. They will remember. I guess I just don't see why it was so funny then again I don't see the humor in punked or Jack(butt) so maybe I'm just a curmudgeon. To me it's like telling a joke in the wrong situation. No matter how funny the joke telling it at a child's funeral would take some of the humor out of it...unless he was killed by a toilet.

[sheethead]

What exactly is so fun about watching players hot dog on a losing team?

The same thing that makes it fun to watch athletes hot dog in every other sport, to break up the monotony and have some fun. So is the Lambeau Leap in the same boat as this, since Butler started it when the Packers were far from Super Bowl stardom? Would the celebration be OK with you if the Brewers were 10 games up in the division? Why would that make it more tolerable?

[sheethead]

I don't see the humor in punked or Jack(butt)

 

If you can't find humor in Jackbutt (really c'mon with the filter already, you know the FCC has lightened up a little), then I can see why you didn't find this amusing. That's fair I suppose, regardless of how I feel you are missing out.

[Thurston Fluff]

Actually I don't find the Lambeau leap all that fresh nor do I find TD celebrations all that exciting. I watch sports for the game not the antics. It feeds my competitive side, I love the highs and lows, but never once watched a game and thought boy it would sure be nice to see this team do something funny after they score a meaningless victory/point. I'm not looking down on people who do like it. Just different strokes for different folks I guess.

All of this has nothing to do with how classless/hypocritical I think the Cards and their fans are. They seem to confuse knowledge with class. Really all they were last year was sore losers. When I saw that type of attitude I found it hard to respect them anymore.

[wisconsinfan47]

I found no more joy in watching it than I did with the walkoff homer to begin with. What exactly is so fun about watching players hot dog on a losing team?

It was funny?

Yes it was, plus it was unique, and even Mr. Old School Ken Macha thought it was funny (Despite what he says, one of the replays shows that he seems to be enjoying himself in the background). Hearing the Billy Ripkins and John Harts and Torii Hunters complaining about this reminds me of the Joe Morgan arrogance that FJM and Bill James would point out among the "old boys club" of Major League Baseball. Maybe I'm still a little young, but I'm glad we have emotional players like Prince and Braun to help drive out this stupid baseball puritanism.

[mattsr0625]

who cares. really im tired of hearing people complain about celebrations. this is their job. regardless of the record dont they have the right to celebrate. i didnt heard anyone complain when they celebrated on the field after the clinch of the wild card. yes the brewers are having a terrible season, but when they win its fun and it was fun for the fans that were at the game.

[TooLiveBrew]

i wonder if Prince will think it's as funny when he gets one in the ribs next year.

 

Yes, I think he will. If the Giants are stupid enough to give him a free base, I think that's awesome.

[sdcheezhd]

The ump at our game tonight asked our pitcher if he'd seen the celebration after Prince's walkoff. They thought it was great. Neither of them has any connection to the Brewers. So that's my man on the street view. I thought BBTN had it right too. Here's a team that's out of it and they're still playing hard (Prince's slide on the 2B) and still having fun. What's wrong with that?

[valpocrewsader]

I don't know what was worse, the team's "ashes ashes, we all fall down" histrionics or Prince's vainglorious "I am all that is man" pose. I'm surprised to see so many defend the celebration as something great, cool, and funny. To me, while it's not the greatest crime ever committed in sports, it was just awkward, weird, and immature. It wasn't clever or meaningful ... I just didn't get it. I'm looking at a mess of Brewers players falling all over themselves like circus clowns and thinking, "Yep, that's my team". Sigh.

 

It was one win, barely eeked out amidst a boatload of disappointing and unacceptable losing. I don't think it was appropriate and it doesn't give the impression that they take their work seriously. Keep it collected, modest, and dignified -- especially at a time when you're not getting it done.

[bigredrobbo]

I had no idea that Eeyore was a Brewerfan. Lighten up will ya? Team chemistry is just important as anything else, IMO. Sure it hasn't been a great season, for a number of reasons, but that doesn't mean you can't find joy where you can get it.

[nate82]

It was one win, barely eeked out amidst a boatload of disappointing and unacceptable losing. I don't think it was appropriate and it doesn't give the impression that they take their work seriously. Keep it collected, modest, and dignified -- especially at a time when you're not getting it done.

Baseball is a sport not a job. Baseball is a game not a job. Baseball is a childs game played by men. Just because they get paid to play a game doesn't make it a job. Chill out man the object of a sport is to entertain the crowd not be corporate robots. This is an entertainment thing and if it was more like the No Fun League I would stop watching baseball. I love it when an athlete shows an emotion when they do something good or bad. They are there to entertain us nothing more nothing less.

[SeriesFinale]

Yadier Molina's on-field temper tantrum and absolutely dogging it down the 1st base line on that sac in the 8th tonight was far more "disrespectful to the game" to me than any silly non-taunting celebration.

[Menace II Sobriety]

I don't know what was worse, the team's "ashes ashes, we all fall down" histrionics or Prince's vainglorious "I am all that is man" pose. I'm surprised to see so many defend the celebration as something great, cool, and funny. To me, while it's not the greatest crime ever committed in sports, it was just awkward, weird, and immature. It wasn't clever or meaningful ... I just didn't get it. I'm looking at a mess of Brewers players falling all over themselves like circus clowns and thinking, "Yep, that's my team". Sigh.

 

It was one win, barely eeked out amidst a boatload of disappointing and unacceptable losing. I don't think it was appropriate and it doesn't give the impression that they take their work seriously. Keep it collected, modest, and dignified -- especially at a time when you're not getting it done.

It is a job and it is a game. If these men did not get paid to do this for a living at a healthy sum they would find other things to do with their talents. Do you have a problem with kids getting candy on Halloween? How about what the Yankees do when they hit a walk off, and everyone dives at the helmet like a bridal bouquet? How about the Cavs last year with all of their antics in the playoffs?

 

Yes, the Brewers had a disappointing season but should that stop them from trying to keep other teams out of the playoffs? If you don't like the way the season is going take your ball and go home. I am a huge fan of the history of baseball but I am sick of this uber-sensitive junk we have to hear. The crew was on ESPN, Deadspin, JS, and whatever else for enjoying themselves one time in the course of 162.

[sheethead]

Yadier Molina's on-field temper tantrum and absolutely dogging it down the 1st base line on that sac in the 8th tonight was far more "disrespectful to the game" to me than any silly non-taunting celebration.

I thought Smoltz showing up the ump on a close non-strike call was fairly disrespectful. I didn't see Vargas doing the same thing when he threw the same pitch in the eight that wasn't called a strike.

[SeriesFinale]

Jim Rome and SF Bay Area media have been beating the drum about this the last couple days.

[sheethead]

Pippens has is right, the rest of the round table (Brainerd/Sanders) on today's on deck show going with the old school viewpoint. At least people are talking about the Brewers?

[Tbadder]

Everyone, I repeat everyone, has a right to act like an idiot. And everyone has a right to call it something different. And everyone has the right to believe in what they're shovelling.

 

And everyone has a right to the contarian view. Lets enjoy it all.

[pretendastronaut]

Quotes from Cameron, as reported on the JS Blog;

 

"I can pretty much tell you this, you know, from some of the other comments I've heard from some people, that the one thing we do if you look at our game from one through nine innings everybody is busting their ass around the bases," Cameron said. "Everybody's taking out people. Everybody runs the bases all the way through the bag. . . . You know what, man. I know there's a lot of older people who don't like it. Nobody said nothing when we started the original bounce with Barry Larkin, Greg Vaughn, and some of the older guys in Cincinnati in '99 when we were the young kids pretty much in a race down the stretch. It was 'Hey, they're having fun.' All of the sudden we fall out of the race a little bit. Nobody said we had to stop having fun and keep playing hard."

 

Cameron said the gesture was not designed to show the Giants up.

 

"Hey, man we just went extra innings. Everybody knows it's an emotional game. You can't really show your emotions because of the, should say, rules of the game without winning a championship or something like that. To play a 162 game schedule and somebody shows a little bit of emotion and has fun with it. Everyone loves it. Everybody in Milwaukee loves it, so so what. Who cares? We didn't show nobody up. It wasn't like we pointed at their dugout or anything like that. Anything. When we lose, we walk off the field. We don't stay on the field and watch what people are doing."

 

Link

[SeriesFinale]

Yeah, I haven't really heard many of the Giants players say anything--Zito even called it "pretty creative" on Rome yesterday morning, although he said he didn't love being on the other side of it (he also wasn't a fan of the untuck, which I thought was weird, although he said he thinks the Brewers should "go all the way naked with it" so he can't be that bothered). Locally, it was only cranks like Ralph Barbieri and Knapp and unfortunately Mike Krukow complaing about it, along with Rome (and who knows who else).

 

If you look on the comments of that Knapp column, even the Giants fans didn't seem that bothered by it--more annoyed that it's still a story.

 

I think if the Giants weren't in a playoff race and really really needed that win, this would have been no story.

[Patrick425]

Been kind of milling around this thread for the last several days. Really wanting to post, but kinda feeling like "what's the point". You either like this kind of stuff or you don't. I guess I'll give my two cents and state that I'm not a big fan of it. My 11 year old son loves it.

For me, I agree with valpo in that I find myself somewhat wincing when I see my team do things like this. It's a bit uncomfortable for me. Braun's fist up in the air as he rounded 2nd base last year during the last game of the season was a picture of pure, sudden, joy and makes a great poster for my son to hang on his wall. Same could be said about Gibson's fist pump in game 1 of the 1988 WS. But in my mind, pre-planned celebrations such as this is no different than the football player who pulls the cell phone out of his sock after a touchdown (or pen and signs the football). It's the kind of showmanship that doesn't really add anything to the game for me. I would have been happier if they just greeted him at the plate with big smiles on their faces and high fives.

No one says you can't have fun and play with joy. I love that. But, do you have to choreograph your celebration?

[hammytime]

If you can't have fun, no matter what your job is, you're in the wrong job. It doesn't do any good to stay serious and straight-laced all the time. Lighter moments can help relieve stress. (As a teacher, I live this every day.)

[pitchleague]

I can't wait to see what the team does the next time they hit a walk-off homer (this year or next year). Maybe they'll all gather at home plate as if they're going to jump around but the batter just runs across the plate, past the players and into the clubhouse.

 

Maybe they'll all offer congratulatory handshakes all around. Very gentleman-like.

 

Or maybe they'll do what I would like to see. Everyone gathers at the plate just standing there with stone faces--no smiles or anything. The batter crosses home plate and the team turns, as one, and walks back to the dugout as if they're leaving a funeral. No smiles, no crowd recognition, nothing. Just as if it was a walk-off loss.

 

Either that or on a walk-off homer, the entire team just stays in the dugout and heads to the clubhouse.

[Thurston Fluff]

If you can't have fun, no matter what your job is, you're in the wrong job. It doesn't do any good to stay serious and straight-laced all the time. Lighter moments can help relieve stress.

 

I guess it all depends on what you call fun. If you think showboating is fun then it was fun. If you think fun is simply playing the game with pride and enjoy the actual playing of the game then there is no need to have that type of act to enjoy oneself. I guess if the team needs to create fun because the game itself isn't fun then maybe they need to do that sort of thing.

 

Baseball is a sport not a job. Baseball is a game not a job. Baseball is a childs game played by men. Just because they get paid to play a game doesn't make it a job.

 

Actually it is a job. Getting paid to do it does make it a job. The reason we pay to see the games isn't to see them have fun it's to see them play baseball. Maybe even win once in awhile.

 

Chill out man the object of a sport is to entertain the crowd not be corporate robots.

 

The object is to entertain by pitching and hitting the ball, running the bases and fielding. If all we wanted was any form of entertainment they could just stop the game when it gets boring and have Braun do a stand-up routine or maybe have them do some skit comedy. At least then the premeditated action would be funny. I just think the extra stuff takes away from the actual game. Kind of like how the bozo Bengals receiver in football used to have a different act after every TD was more known for those TD celebrations than the team was for actually playing the game. If the only way to entertain the crowd or get recognized is by corny celebrations your not playing the game very well.

 

Yes, I think he will. If the Giants are stupid enough to give him a free base, I think that's awesome.

 

I'm sure Prince will be so thrilled with the free base he gets from them he will hunt down the pitcher who gave it to him after the game to thank him. That is a bit of the problem with the Brewers. They don't seem to understand their actions that rub other teams wrong comes back to them later. Then they don't handle it very well. The dodgers best hitter gets hit then the Dodgers do what all teams do by hitting the Brewers best hitter and Prince handles it as poorly as he could. Will they handle the retaliation certain to come from the Giants next year any better? If history tells us anything they won't.

[jeffy]

"The object is to entertain by pitching and hitting the ball, running the bases and fielding."

 

Really? Someone had better inform the sausages.

 

What about all the other "entertainment" that goes on at miller park:

the rubber chicken contest

the kiss cam

follow the ball contest

guess the attendance

pathetic attempts at orchestrated cheer leading (ie. "charge" and "make some noise")

and please tell fans to stop doing the wave

all the amusement park-like crap on the concourses

etc.

 

This was far less "corny" than all the above.

 

They are out of everything and have stunk for the last 2.5 months, at least this gave some of us a little laugh at the end of that game.