The talk of the town for the last few days has been whether the San Francisco Giants will retaliate for Prince Fielder’s atomic walk-off from last September in spring training — and today they did, when Barry Zito hit the Brewers first basemen with a pitch in Cactus League play. Here’s how it went down, according to the Journal-Sentinel:
“Fielder just stood there and looked at Zito before picking up the ball and tossing it back toward him. The plate umpire didn’t issue any warning or say anything to Fielder or Zito, at least it didn’t appear like he did.
Fielder then got to first base and loudly clapped his hands together in Zito’s direction. As the inning ended, Zito walked off the mound and Fielder just laughed with first-base coach Ed Sedar.”
Fielder is unfazed. It’s Spring Training. No big deal. On the radio, however, the conversation revolved around whether Brewers manager Ken Macha threw his players under the bus by apologizing about the walk-off celebration, as Bruce Bochy mentioned in this report:
“Macha and I talked, yeah,” Bochy said. “He understood our situation. But I don’t want to get into what we talked about. We had a good talk, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Macha couldn’t ignore the incident in polite conversation at baseball’s winter meetings. For example, let’s say you cross over a guy playing pick-up basketball and he falls and twists his ankle. Let’s say you beat out a coworker for an award or promotion. Let’s say your dog gets into the neighbors flower bed. You offer the apology, even if it’s not completely sincere. Bochy wouldn’t say what they talked about — let me tell you how that conversation went down between two old baseball guys:
Bochy: “We had a nice season. Just couldn’t keep it together in September.”
Macha: “About that, sorry about that little show at home last year in Milwaukee. I didn’t know Prince and the guys were going to do that. It’s not that I approve of that type of stuff.”
Bochy: “ ’preciate that. We’re still gonna hit him.”
Macha: “Yeah, I know.”
Viva Cerveceros 