Macha Finally Showing Emotion

Brewer fans have plenty of reason to be frustrated with this season. After all, it's not gone well, and for every step forward, the team takes two steps back.

Through it all, manager Ken Macha has continued to show virtually no emotion, even though he did manage an ejection during a game at Colorado last month. That was his first ejection in nearly 300 as Brewers manager, something that took predecessor Ned Yost about 20 minutes.

We've also seen Macha refuse to properly deal with underperforming veteran pitchers, and we've seen his complete lack of emotion during games.

Saturday night, Macha came as close to snapping as he's come in his tenure with Milwaukee.

The Brewers were in the midst of a comfortable 6-3 win over the Atlanta Braves Saturday, when first baseman Prince Fielder came to the plate in the eighth inning. Apparently, he looked at pitcher Johnny Venters wrong, because the first pitch went over Fielder's head, and the second one hit him right in the middle of the back. Since the home-plate umpire had issued a warning between the pitches, Venters was ejected -- along with Braves manager Bobby Cox, who actually knows how to be thrown out of a ballgame, unlike Macha. Fielder threw his bat down, clearly pissed at what went down, but chose not to charge the mound.

After the game, Macha was livid.

Well, livid by Macha standards.

“I don't know what's going on there,” ... Macha said before saying Major League Baseball should get involved. “(Vice President of rules and on-field operations) Bob Watson ought to take a look at it. Braun hits a home run, they drill (Fielder). He hits a home run, his next at-bat they drill him. That's evidence enough for me for some guys to get suspended for quite a bit. “Now if they're just wild, tell them to get the ball over the plate. We're respecting what's going on. Hit the ball, run around the bases. … Apparently they want to pitch Prince inside but in the middle of the back? That's a little more than inside.”

(By the way, Venters and Cox think we're all morons, because neither would admit to any intent, even though this is far from the first time a Brewer hitter has been beaned by an Atlanta pitcher while the Braves are getting beat.)

Cox and Macha met before Sunday's game, probably because Cox knew Manny Parra was pitching for the Brewers, and that made the game virtually a lost cause. If the Brewers wanted to retaliate, wouldn't this be the perfect time to do it?

Fielder handled the situation with class, as he did in the spring when he took a beaning from San Francisco's Barry Zito, and completely unlike his meltdown in Los Angeles last summer.

Now, it's time for the Braves to fess up. Quit playing dumb, and admit that you have some sort of a problem with Prince Fielder. After all, you never know. He might be your teammate soon.