OK, the above is a bit of wishful thinking. But after former Cards reliever Al Hrabosky criticized St. Louis C Yadier Molina for not running out a pop fly last Friday night, manager Tony La Russa said the broadcaster ought to be “ashamed of himself”. Hrabosky’s reply, as transcribed by the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s Dan Caesar :
Hrabosky reiterated in a phone interview Monday that he was merely doing his job by bringing up the fact that Molina had stopped running, with bat in hand, on a popup that was dropped and resulted in a forceout Friday, and added that the situation has somewhat tarnished All-Star festivities.
“He took a cheap shot at me and if anything, Tony™s the one who has embarrassed Molina at a time when we should be celebrating Molina™s great year and accomplishment as an All-Star,™™ Hrabosky said. “Now everybody in baseball is here reading about this ridiculous thing.™™
Hrabosky also is irritated about another La Russa comment.
“I heard him say (on that show) one of the most disgraceful things ” he said Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst … would have done the same thing as Molina,™™ Hrabosky said.
He said that because La Russa tolerates some players not running out routine plays, he doesn™t bring it up about their failure to do so. If Molina had even been jogging, rather than stopping, Hrabosky said he wouldn™t have said anything.
“In this case, that wasn™t the case,™™ he said. “I didn™t make a big issue out of it, I just said we need a better effort than that.™™