Such a shame the A’s and Yankees only face each a few times a year ; following last month’s blowup regarding Alex Rodriguez violating the unwritten rule of not-trotting-across-the-pitcher’s-mound on his way back to dugout, Comcast’s Mychael Urban gave Oakland SP Dallas Braden further opportunities to dump on A-Rod.
Urban: I know you’re probably tired of answering questions about it, but he said — did you see his comments?
Braden: Vaguely. A few of them.
Urban: Somebody said, “Have you ever heard that unwritten rule, about not walking across the other guy’s island?” I mean that’s what it is, right, it’s your island?
Braden: That’s fair.
Urban: He says well no, I haven’t heard that, especially from a guy with only a handful of wins. Either you’ve heard it or you haven’t…
Braden: Right…
Urban: It doesn’t matter how many career wins the cat has.
Braden: Right. And there’s two ways that I can comment on that, and I’ll give you both of them. One is: I was always told if you give a fool enough rope, he’ll hang himself. And with those comments, he had all the rope he needed.
Urban: Right.
Braden: And number two, I didn’t know that there was a criteria in order to compete against A-Rod. I didn’t know that. I’m pretty sure that everybody that dons a major league uniform has earned the right to pitch at this level, and has earned the right to face whomever steps in that batter’s box. That being said, whomever steps in that batter’s box reserves the right to pass judgement, if they will, but at the end of the day, we’re wearing the same costume. We’re both after the same thing, and for him to feel like somebody needs to reach a certain level of success in order to be able to compete against him, I think he should probably check that.
Urban: And one last thing about Alex: I’m guessing that you didn’t like him before that happened.
Braden: Yeah, not so much. I mean not that I didn’t like him as a person, because I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him on a personal level. I’m not a fan of his antics, obviously what he displayed wasn’t the first display of his lack of respect for the game or those playing it, so that never sat well with me. He’s just an individualistic player. That’s his approach to the game, he plays for the name on the back, and I don’t know if he’s noticed, but he doesn’t have a name on the back over there. He should play for the name on the front a little more.