Alright, everyone. Chill out. Calm down. Calm DOWN, got it? Okay. We're good.
Whew.
Things escalated quickly there, huh? Got out of hand pretty fast, eh? That was something.
Let's look at the events as they happened, starting with Monday afternoon:
- Brandon Phillips, Reds All-Star 2B, says in so many words he hates the Cardinals and their bitching.
- The national media, likely lurking beind Phillips' locker, transcribed these statements, delivering them directly to the Cardinals.
- Phillips, aware of the tension, attempts to do his customary complimentary tap of the catcher and umpire's respective shin guards.
- Yadier Molina - WITHOUT THE AID OF A TRANSLATOR - tells Phillips "I'm not your bitch." He kicks his bat away and stands face to face with Phillips on home plate like some sort of mangodthing.
- Initial escalation. Words are exchanged hautily.
- Tony LaRussa blames Dusty Baker for the scruffle. Both are ejected.
- Secondary escalation: Momentum seems to push an agitated Chris Carpenter, Cardinals co-ace, Scott Rolen, a former Cardinal and nice guy, and Jason LaRue toward the back gate. Video shows the Reds' starting pitcher Johnny Cueto running around the scrum, then getting himself pinned BY HIS OWN PLAYERS, and starts kicking.
- It is determined that Cueto, as most baseballers do, was wearing metal cleats while kicking, inserting said cleats into LaRue's face. No cleats were inserted to Cueto's OWN TEAMMATES' respective faces.
That's about it. Cards won the game, and Yadier hit a homer. That was neat.
THE VERDICT:
Don't talk shit, and none of this happens. If you talk shit, don't be friendly. Don't be a flipflopping shit-talker: The shit ends up in your mouth, son. Lesson learned.
Don't kick people after running into the scrum and getting pinned BY YOUR OWN PLAYERS. That's super-unprofressional. I don't know where you learned how to fight. Also, if you're big enough to kick someone in the face with metal spikes, be big enough to try and speak to the press without looking so scared while being translated. Made your catcher look like your attorney. Have some pride, man.
DB, I'm all for you defending your boy. But look at the tape first. "They had him pinned up pretty good like a rat in a corner." So the other rats pinned up the one rat and that one rat got so mad scared he starting kicking with his metal spikes? BOOSHMAIN. PS - The manager and the pitcher of the other team punked you out there. That's where you are in baseball. You could have stayed with the Cubs and done that, silly!
He already said this very well.
