Crying Ryan Braun

Should we add Ryan Braun to the "over-zealous D-Bag" category Jim made up for Tim Tebow? 

First, there was the incident last year where Jeff Karstens hit Braun his next at bat after he homered and seemingly admired it a bit too long before rounding the bases. This is really standard baseball etiquette but not to Ryan Braun. If there was an issue, his pitcher should have hit Karstens in that game (had a couple chances). They did not. Instead, Braun continually brought up the incident the rest of the season and how "we'll see what happens." His consistent whining ultimately led to both benches emptying months later when a Brewer pitcher finally did hit Jeff Karstens (He was probably tired of hearing about it from Braun in the clubhouse). This was a bizarre episode where Jason Kendall refused to say the correct name of the Pirates pitching coach Joe Kerrigan after the game. Instead, he was "Dave Kerwin:"

"It was fine until Dave Kerwin," Kendall said, referring to Kerrigan. Kendall continued to call Kerrigan by that incorrect name -- seemingly on purpose -- even after being promptly corrected.


"I can take a lot, but I'm not going to get yelled at," he continued. "Dave Kerwin started yelling at me...."

When asked what he thought made Kerrigan so mad, Kendall responded: "I don't know. Dave Kerwin? I have no idea."

Then last night, Ryan Braun comes up to the plate to lead of the ninth with the Pirates up two runs. He lays down a bunt to get on first (sort of a goofy move by a power hitter, but understandable that he just wants to get on base since they are down two). Prince Fielder then strikes out swinging while Braun is trying to steal second. He stole it easily cause that is what guys do against Ryan Doumit. He then tries to run to third because no one was covering the base. The problem was that Andy Laroche still had the ball and tagged him out easily. The out effectively ended the game and gave the Brewers their 9th loss in a row.

Why was Braun so excited to get to 3B with one out? Did he think his run counts as two? Why was he even running in the first place? His run means nothing. But hey, it is not Braun's fault. It was Andy Laroche's superpowers:

"Getting to third base right there wouldn't have done us much good, but I saw an opportunity," Braun said. "[LaRoche] did some Matrix stuff or something, I don't know. He was about to throw the ball back to the pitcher and did a reverse spin. It was a good play by him and a stupid play by me."

Gotcha, that explains it all.