Last night Yasiel Puig and Nick Hundley added another page in the decades-long rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants. That said, this rivalry is starting to feel less like one between two teams, and a feud between one team and one player.
Here’s my take on last night’s bench-clearing basebrawl:
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
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Good post, Oscar. You covered just about all of the possibilities. The only other motivation that Puig could have had in starting a fight was to motivate the Dodgers, in general. This is a rather stupid way of going about things, but Puig is a bit stupid, after all, and that is not a racial comment. This one has to be on Puig for his adolescent reaction to Hundley. In most other competitive team sports, trash talking is going on much more than in baseball. Both basketball and American football are full of it. Some guys never shut up. You are taught not to listen to this noise and focus on the game.
Videos do not sell in this market. But I will give you credit for persistence.
You don’t make first contact. Whoever does that has lost. And Hundley for Puig is a trade the giants would make any day.
I don’t much care for Puig’s antics. Some of it is genuine, and that I have no issues with, but a lot of it is Ego Theater. Enough with the clown act. We’re already looking at you. Do some baseball stuff so we can cheer.