Brewers No Longer Feel Need to Violate 'Baseball Etiquette' to Get Under Cardinals' Skin

Greetings ... you'll notice fewer updates in the coming weeks as I work on football preview research and play lots of NCAA and -- eventually -- Madden on the XBox.

Priorities ...

Anyway, the Brewers continue to play pretty darn good baseball as of late, and are now 12-1 in their last 13 games after a ten-inning win in St. Louis Tuesday.

You might remember a couple years ago, when the Brewers seemed to irk the Cardinals every time the teams played, largely because of their goofy walk-off celebrations and the Mike Cameron-initiated jersey-untucking after wins.

This time, the Brewers are irritating the Cardinals without the antics. They're doing it by going 7-3 so far in the season series.

Led off the field by Ron Roenicke and on it by Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, the Brewers are not behaving like the Brewers of old.

Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post Dispatch had a great column on the rivalry, and what appears to be a maturing Milwaukee team that has transformed itself from the fun-loving, brash bunch that got in the playoffs three years ago.

After years of playing the role of the nettlesome, shirt-tail flipping kids in their competitive relationship with the grumpy but proper Cardinals, the Brewers have evolved into a far more disturbing role for the Redbirds: a mature and confident title contender.

They don't need to yank out their shirt tails anymore to get on the nerves of the cantankerous old-school Cards. Instead, they seem to do it by playing solid, smart - and yes, unflinching - baseball in front of their barking elders.

... Maybe in the past, the Brewers might have shrunk a bit when the Cardinals blustered about any real or perceived affront to baseball's unwritten rules. But now they will stand their ground - and even act like adults - like last week during the great dust-up about Cards manager Tony La Russa's contention that the Brewers were pitching Albert Pujols dangerously high and tight. Last week's strategy sparked a beanball battle and a potential scuffle (neutralized by of all people Fielder, the guy who once stormed to the doors of an opponent's clubhouse to demand retribution).

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you go from Ned "Mortal Kombat" Yost to Ken "Zzzzz" Macha to Roenicke, an even-keel guy who clearly has the respect of his players.

If last week's scoreboard/sign-stealing/throw at Braun/"idiots in the stands" fiasco happens with Yost running the team, half of the team's remaining meetings would include either a bench-clearing incident or the very real threat of one.

This isn't to rip Yost or blame him for the team's past shortcomings. He did some good things in Milwaukee, helping lead the franchise from the depths of despair to where they are now. He played a positive role in that, even though it appeared at times his demeanor was helping hold the team back.

Roenicke, though, has gotten to these guys. His attitude last week was basically to blow off what happened and focus on the next game. His players followed suit, just like every GM dreams when he hires a coach or manager and something like that happens during the season.

We have a lot of baseball to play before October hits, but the Brewers appear to be in just as good a position as they have ever been in. Win another game in this series -- or two! -- and things will only look rosier.

Ken Macha Told to Sleep in Someone Else's Dugout From Now On

The Milwaukee Brewers wasted no time doing the obvious after Sunday's season finale, which was -- naturally -- a loss.

They told manager Ken Macha they would not exercise the club's option on his contract for 2011. Macha was only ten games under .500 in two years, but it seemed evident there was friction between him and the players, especially stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.

Macha didn't do many of the little things former manager Ned Yost did right.

When an opposing player threw at Braun or Fielder, Yost made sure there was retaliation. Of course, it was sometimes ill-timed, but it was executed, for crying out loud.

Macha? He didn't believe in that, apparently. Instead, he let guys get hit time after time, and continued to let opposing pitchers off the hook until well after the Brewers were out of it. Incensed, the players didn't bother using it as a rallying point.

Yost used Braun's speed. He used Mike Cameron's speed. He would have used Carlos Gomez' speed.

Macha? Doesn't like making outs on the bases. Apparently, he'd prefer we just made them at the plate and eliminated the middle man.

Yost didn't let his guys get jobbed by an umpire. If it happened, he was in the umpire's grill in a matter of seconds. If he got thrown out of the game, dammit, he got thrown out of the game. It was fine, because he was sticking up for his guys. His players felt good when that happened, because they knew he had their backs. It made them want to play for him.

(The best image of this came in June, when the Brewers played a series at Target Field against the Twins. In the first game, Dave Bush was getting barked at by a crappy home-plate umpire who wouldn't give him anything, including the strikes he was throwing. Macha sat on his hands and only left the dugout when it was time to pull Bush from the game.)

Brewers fans liked to joke that Macha was always sleeping in the dugout. At least I think they were joking. I never saw it actually happen, after all ... even though his mannerisms suggested he was slipping away from consciousness once in a while during games.

Anyway, on his way out the door, Macha woke up long enough to talk about his dismissal, or whatever you want to call what the Brewers have done here.

Macha also acknowledged his trying relationships with stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder while noting that several other players he had good relationships with thanked him after yesterday’s season finale, including Corey Hart, Casey McGehee and Wolf among plenty of others.

Still, it was those other two players that he never could develop great rapports with despite his efforts.

“If the effort wasn’t reciprocated, then there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. You can’t force guys to do that,” Macha said. “Some guys were open to discussion and some guys weren’t, I guess, but that’s the same with every club.

“I talked a lot to Ryan, almost every day, but he does his own thing. He’s going to do what he wants to do.

“With Prince, I think he had some issues this year to deal with, the contract probably being the main thing, and at times he was hard to talk to. I don’t know if there were any guys on the staff that talked a whole lot to him this year.

“Those are the two guys, but the rest of the guys it was all positive. I opened up to (Braun and Fielder) but you have to have a back and forth. The faces of the franchise, that’s what they are.”

The bottom line is that he didn't get the job done. Making a connection with Braun and Fielder would have been fine, but it would have involved Macha being different than the way he was. His personality just wasn't going to mesh with these two guys.

Yes, Braun and Fielder should have made more of an effort to get along with their on-field boss. But we live in a society now where the coach has to give some, too. It's not 1966 anymore, when "my way or the highway" coaches won games by scaring the hell out of their players.

Macha managed like it was 1966, and while there are some veteran teams that he could be effective with, this is simply not one of them. It's a younger team that needs a high-energy manager who understands matchups and tactics, and he understands how to relate to his star players.

Without that, no coach or manager can last ... not in 2010. Or 2011.

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.

Ozzie Guillen Rips Overzealous Umpire

So much for that mundane getaway day game in Cleveland Wednesday.

Before the Chicago White Sox held on for dear life to defeat the Indians 5-4, the game was already headline-worthy.

In the third inning, White Sox starter Mark Buehrle and manager Ozzie Guillen were ejected from the game after a dustup with veteran umpire Joe West, who was manning first base for the game.

Buehrle was called for two balks in the third inning. Neither of them were balks, based on virtually anyone's understanding of the balk rule. After the first call, Guillen came out to argue and was eventually ejected. Buehrle then got the gate after the second balk, when he flipped his glove to the ground in anger.

Apparently, a mundane act of frustration is now considered to be a blatant show-up of the umpire.

Here is the video, which includes White Sox television voice Hawk Harrelson -- probably my least favorite baseball broadcaster -- speaking the truth.



I don't get the "stick it right up his behind" theory, but Harrelson is right. West was out of line, deserves a suspension (remember, he was fined by baseball for his comments in April about the pace of Yankees-Red Sox games), and was obviously interjecting himself into this otherwise innocent afternoon baseball game.

After the game, Ozzie was, um, not happy.

"Because he's a f---ing a--hole, that's what he is. I just went out to ask him ... I wasn't asking about the balk because you're not allowed, anytime you go out there to ask about balk or whatever. The thing I went out to ask him about was why he was embarrassing Buehrle. I'm not going out to argue about the balk because the rule, but I went out to ask him why he's embarrassing Buehrle and he give me one of this [dismissing him with his hands]. When you're a professional and you have to respect the managers, the way we're supposed to respect the umpires, they are supposed to respect back. Obviously they have more power than we have and we have to wear it every time that happens. That's the reason I got tossed. I don't think he has the right and the power to let people know who is the chief on the field. We know he has to control the game, we know he has to control all the s---, but in the meanwhile, I don't think it was the right thing to do, like we balked him while we were on the field. Joe has been like that for a lot of years, and he's always going to be like this. I'm not going to change it, nobody is going to change it, but sometimes he thinks f---ing people pay to watch him f---ing umpire. He's the type of guy that wants to control the game, it's good for the game, and to me one of the best umpires in the game, no doubt. But in the meanwhile, those years are on his shoulders and kind of heavy and showing people who he is. I deserve respect and the players here deserve respect here, too. When you tell the manager to get the f--- off the field, I don't think that's a good way to handle situations. No matter what you say, what you do, how long you talk here, Major League Baseball doesn't do s--- for anything. I'll be waiting for my fine, get 'em the next day."

"I said why are you embarrassing Buehrle? He said, 'Well Buehrle was doing ...' well, you got two choices, the second choice he has, and he was wrong the first time or the second time, either one was wrong. Because you don't like what Buehrle did the first time you should toss him. You shouldn't embarrass him. That's the way he is."

Did you see the second one that got Buehrle ejected?

"It's not about balk. It's all different. Buehrle has been doing the same stuff, what? Seven years, eight years? All of a sudden [West] just gets up today and says, 'Well, I'm going to call a balk on Buehrle no matter what.' He's got the right, I don't know if it was a balk or not, you couldn't tell. In the meanwhile, I was kind of upset with the reaction. He thinks he's the s--- in the field. People pay to watch f---ing players play, not to see umpires and managers. I don't see any people say, 'I'm going to see Ozzie Guillen manage or Joe West f---ing umpire.'"

Hard to blame him. West's ego is out of control. Obviously, he's a bit set on making a name for himself, and he's done that already. Perhaps he should consider this singing career idea full-time, because he's burning quite a few bridges in baseball right about now.

There is something ironic about Guillen -- as guilty of attention-grabbing behavior as any manager in baseball -- talking about West being out to get noticed. But at least the manager in this case has a job. Guillen's gig there is to take the bullet so Buehrle doesn't get tossed.

West isn't sticking up for wronged umpires around the sport when he acts like an egomaniac. Instead, he's out for himself and only himself.

Guillen may be, too, but at least he has a viable excuse.