More Ugly Than Usual In Cincinnati
I know living in Cincinnati isn’t fun. Nick Lachey is tea city’s biggest celebrity, for Godssake. Living in Queen City is libel to make anyone cranky. But crikey Cincinnati Reds, what’s gotten into you?
Reds 2B Brandon Phillips offered up the following gem- seemingly out of nowhere – right before Monday’s Game 1 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I’d play against these guys with one leg. We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals. All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear – I hate the Cardinals.”
Didja notice the little dig on the Cubs in there too? It’s actually difficult to respond to Phillips’ outburst without going down the Cardinals roster to determine what makes each of them such a, er, um, whatever it was that Phillips called them. If everyone wearing a Cardinal uniform are complainers, what’s that say about the four guys playing for the Reds that were once wearing Cardinal red?
But I’m a Cubs fan, so I can’t get too upset about the Cardinals getting run through the ringer, but what’s up with the seemingly locker room-wide hatred for the Cubs over in Queen City? Last month, Joey Votto made the blog rounds by refusing to congratulate Chicago’s Marlon Byrd after his game-saving defensive play in the All-Star Game.
“I don’t like the Cubs,” Votto said. “And I’m not going to pat anybody with a Cubs uniform on the back. But because he made that really cool play, it turned out to be a really cool experience. I’m really glad we got the win today.”
Okay. I’ll admit, I have absolutely no evidence that this is the case, but the fact that the Reds are managed by Dusty Baker and Chicago ran him out of town on a rail after the 2006 season seems to make him the lead among suspects fueling such hatred. The Gabriel Byrne, if you will. Players hating specific players makes sense. People are people. But Phillips, who grew up in North Carolina and Votto, who grew up in Ontario probably didn’t grow up hating the Midwestern Cubs, right?
Anyway, Phillips called everyone associated with the Cardinals – even John Buck and Stan Musial (probably) - a bunch of bizznitches before Game 1 of these teams’ three-game series on Monday. The quote was published after Game 1 and lo and behold, the two teams found themselves in a mighty big scuffle before Game 2′s first inning was over.
From MLB.com:
In the bottom of the first inning, Phillips was leading off and walked to the plate. Per his customary practice, Phillips tried to offer friendly taps with his bat to the shin guards of Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and home-plate umpire Mark Wegner. Molina, who wanted no part of such pleasantry, kicked Phillips’ bat away.
Molina then stepped on home plate in front of Phillips and got in his face while yelling. Phillips talked back, and once Molina took off his mask, the benches and bullpens cleared.
“I was ready to start the game, and he touched me,” Molina said. “The comments that he made yesterday, that he’s got no friends over here, why are you touching me then? You are not my friend. So don’t touch me. “
The youngest of the Flying Molina Brothers is right. How could Phillips have walked out there, having said what he said and knowing that everyone on the Cards was aware that he said it and act as if he hadn’t said it?
Still with me?
This is 2010. Very few players have any loyalty to any one team, just as most players don’t have deep hatred for any one team. Really, what beef can Brandon Phillips have with Colby Rasmus? Or Yadier Molina, for that matter? To listen to them yammer on, one has to wonder if guys like Phillips and Votto would turn down huge contracts with teams like Chicago because of some deeply personal vendetta.
Note: the Cardinals overtook the Reds for first place in the NL Central on Wednesday afternoon.
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Photos courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via Canadian Press and the AP
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