Exactly. I don’t think Dempster actually intended to throw at his head, but obviously Ryan saw it differently. But with that being said, he should probably stop his post home run shenanigans otherwise he will start to look like on of the biggest ass holes baseball. All reports from those who have met him say that he is a nice guy who is good with fans and is always willing to sign autographs. I don’ think he overreacted this time, but if he keeps celebrating like that, the image of him being a good “clean” star won’t matter much.

Braun is the sort of player that upsets the opposition players and fans with the way that he acts.
The fact that he is so good means that he can to some degree get away with it.
In soccer football(there is no way I am going to start calling it soccer) he would be similar to Ronaldo who plays for Manchester Utd, a very skillful but arrogant player that his own fans love and there rest of the fans hate while acknowledging the fact he is very good.
As long as he keeps hitting the way he does Brewers fans are going to cheer for him. If he ever played for another team I am sure that after a while Brewer fans and players would also get riled up by what he does.

… excellent user name, dude.

I don’t have a problem with a pitcher celebrating after a big strikeout or a hitter celebrating after a big home run. It’s more of the tradition of baseball that is getting in the way of him celebrating and making him look like an ass.

But I am not sure what it hit is important in this situation, it is more the location of the pitch that upset Bruan.

and you see the ball not deflect at all as it passes the helmet, and deflect sharply off the bat.

Soriano jogging backwards is “worse” than anything Braun has done, if you consider showing excitement as a batter being bad.

also soriano’s bunny hop when he makes a catch…..that annoys me

If Dempster REALLY wanted to hit Braun, he would have.

To say Ryan didn’t have his stuff last night is an understatement. He was everywhere and his pitching last night was more reminiscent of his closer days.

MANY guys watch pitches that they annihilate. Aramis does, Soriano does, yeah but there’s a difference between their antics and Braun’s. Braun acts like every HR is the 1st of his ML career. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m a Cubs fan or if its the fact that you guys are Brewers fans. I just feel like it should be noticeable how different their antics really are.

IMO, (probably because I’m for the other guys), what Braun did last night was a little unnecessary. The pitch got away. Next AB, take your HR, congratulations, and job the bases.

I would be a little embarrassed of Ramirez if he does that EVERY time.

Not here to start any unrest. Just telling it like I see it, as a Cubs fan.

Brenly doesn’t like it when Soriano does that stupid bunny hop before he catches a fly ball (no one but Soriano does I think), and he doesn’t like it when any player showboats, even if it’s Ramirez, Zambrano or Marmol. Brenly also wishes Bradley would walk away instead of jaw with umps. Point is, Brenly is from the old school. He doesn’t mind someone being excited they got a homer or a key hit, but act like you’ve been there done that before for the most part. He expects players to be professionals. To that end, when he says Braun’s ribs are likely to hurt more before the season ends, he’s predicting what other teams will do based on Brenly’s years in the game. If Braun does this stuff against the Cards for example, given LaRussa’s history, a Cardinals pitcher won’t miss. There are other teams we could all pick out that would also do the same. Braun is good, very good, but he ain’t God and somebody somewhere will eventually seize the opportunity to remind him in a big way. Dempster’s pitch will seem like nothing. And moreover, it might not be Braun that suffers for Braun’s antics. There’s often no better way for a team to get their teammate to knock it off than to plunk a few of his friends. I am not saying the Cubs would do it. Some other team could beat them to it.

No, Cub fans don’t much care for it when Soriano or Marmol do those things.

I agree; I also think that when people say the player should “act like they’ve been there before” are really not looking at the full picture. Act like you’ve been there before?!!! Come on, most have not or when they have, they haven’t been there consistantly.
Touchdown dances, homerun trots, game winning three pointers, ect ect ALL deem emotion and excitement.
If you don’t like the response a player has after posting a productive outcome, then stop then from having success.

Mr. MIke

I don’t usually criticize for that sort of thing, but holy run-on sentences batman.

I don’t think that it’s healthy to throw balls traveling around 90 MPH directly at other players in hopes of hurting them or getting them all “into” the game. Good ol’ fashioned baseball can be filled with rivalries, yes, and this does make them fun. However, there is no need to be particularly malicious while playing a GAME.

I love baseball and it is a big part of my life. At the end of the day, though, we need to remember that it is just a game. The players, though, aren’t like plastic chess pieces and shouldn’t be banged up on purpose as such.

does Braun tend to crowd the plate like many players do today? I am asking, only because if he does (like Bonds did, where his arm was in the strike zone it seemed) then many inside pitches become high and tight.

I am against a beanball fest, that is not a needed thing, but at the same time is a player is crowding the plate a pitcher does need to take it back. A head shot is not the right way at the same time, do not misundersand my point.

Dempster has been known to be a little wild, and he was all over the place, hence Soto having to block a multitude of pitches, so likely he was not throwing up and in intentionally.

I do not feel Braun celebrates each HR, but there is also a difference between celebrating and pushing it over the edge. Marmol and Zambrano are both guilty of being in the same danger zone as Braun at times. Valverde is the one who I believes needs to be told to quit his garbage, no one in MLB IMO is as bad as him.

Also, I don’t know why people (mainly Cub fans) think that he celebrates after every home run. He doesn’t! After big homers, most players do.

Dude thats total bullshit. Thats like saying people (mainly black people) like to steal things. It is ignorant and totally untrue.

That’s fantasy.

As for the complaining to Hoffpauir, he’s complaining about the location of the pitch, not the fact that it “hit” him.

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read on this incident.

Congratulations.

That is the game within the game. And I believe I know part of his reasoning behind it.

Soriano and Ramirez are prone to chase balls outside the zone low and away. If Macha achieves his goal, the Cubs and Brewers both will be warned prior to their next series about any pitches that are too far inside. Pitchers will shy away from throwing inside at all, taking away a good chunk of the plate from the pitchers. Milwaukee might adjust better, walking more, and knowing the Cubs, we will chase pitches and have a three game strike out total close to 50.

Julio is just a bad pitcher

if you think Jorge Julio is capable of hitting someone on command, wow. you have no concept of how awful he is

As BrewHaHeather said above, Julio sucks. We regularly ask him to hit the strike zone, and he rarely can accomplish that, so there’s no reason to think he hit Theriot even if he wanted to.

So I’ll drop in to say what several others have already said earlier in the thread:

First off, with Dempster’s pitch earlier that was fouled off of his bat, not his head:

Ok, so the ball narrowly missed his head. It was close enough. If I narrowly miss hitting you in the head, it’ll still draw your attention.

The thing about Braun that pissed Brenly off, IMO, is that he acted like it was a HR that won them the NLCS or something.

I’m guessing, if you had just hit a home run off a guy who nearly hit you in the head last time up, you’d be pretty excited too.

Dempster wasn’t throwing at his head. Like LuckyNinja said it was a pitch that probably got away. If Braun wasn’t so into himself and making it look like he got hit in the head, then maybe he would realize that too. Also, one would think that a player’s manager would talk some sense into him and tell him that it was a mistake-pitch, but that obviously didn’t happen.

I cannot believe the ignorance in this post. I needed a laugh, thanks.

How’s your effort to resurrect your managerial career going? Oh, well, that’s too bad. Next time you have interview, play the tape where you made fun of Braun for having big eyes. I’m sure they’ll be impressed by your judgem… um, I mean your discipl… uh… your professional…. well, at least by your willingness to debase yourself to suck up to your team’s fanbase.

The Cubs didn’t win, so they certainly must have been screwed by the umpires. How is it possible the entire league has an anti-Cub bias?

I thought they only got 290 breaks. Now that I know it was 300, we should stop complaining. Maybe the Brewers should also forfeit the games. Would that make you happy?

What an astoundingly ignorant person you are.

… but why bother? Just go to BleedCubbieBlue and you’ll find about 50 posts laughingly quoting Brenly suggesting that Braun should get drilled, not only during Saturday’s games, but in Sunday’s as well.

Really, pay more attention. We’re not here to do your homework for you.

About 46,000 people have visited the site today, and we’ve had problems with about a half dozen of them. That’s still a pretty good percentage.

In watching the clip a second time, it’s clear that Dempster didn’t make a proper pitching motion. It really looks like he didn’t have proper footing and the ball got away from him. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe he is the greatest pitcher-while-slipping in the majors. But it really doesn’t seem like something personal, it seems like a mistake.