The lack of a Yankees game on Thursday gave us some time to catch up on other things -- Sun and Jin, we hardly knew ye -- but we couldn't totally escape matters related to the pinstriped warriors.
Dallas Braden, the A's pitcher best only known for freaking out when Alex Rodriguez crossed his mound in Oakland last month, gave an interview to Mychael Urban of CSNBayArea that showed he hasn't moved on from the incident.
And why should he? The chances of Braden ever being known for anything more than this aren't all that great so he might as well try to hit the snooze button on his 15 minutes of fame.
Urban started the interview off with just about the best question you'll ever hear from a reporter, one that should vault Urban to the top of the list of contenders to replace Larry King sometime in 2103.
"What people do want to see is what's in your head regarding Alex Rodriguez. I was on the air the day it happened, and I said, "I just fell in love with Dallas all over again." I pitched in college; if somebody did that to me I would have done the exact same thing. After the game, when you said, "If he does it again, there's going to be repercussions..." I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I said, "Where Dallas comes from, the 209, they don't settle things with message pitches, they settle them with knuckles." Is that what you were talking about?"
Now you might say that this is a ridiculous question asked by a lapdog of a reporter, but Urban mined gold by taking this track with Braden. He may be a sycophant, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt of just playing one on TV.
Braden agreed that this isn't how you take care of things in the 209 (that's the area code for Stockton and, hopefully, the last time anyone uses their area code as some kind of signifier) and hinted that there are things that are going to have to happen "out of respect" for the game and his teammates.
He also accused A-Rod of playing for the name on the back of the jersey more than the one on the front, which we'll assume is metaphorical as the Yankees don't put names on the back of the jersey. Braden sniffled a bit about A-Rod mocking him for having a handful of wins, called him a fool and then ludicrously suggested that A-Rod should follow his lead and take the game less seriously.
One wonders if the 209 does a good job of defining serious for their youngsters if he thinks he's giving off a live and let live attitude about the game of baseball.
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Given Braden's desire to fan the flames of this incident by giving WWF-style interviews, he's going to have to do something the next time he faces A-Rod and the Yankees. The Yankees are back in the Bay Area in July and the A's come to town in late August, so hopefully we'll see this play out on the field.
\We don't want to see A-Rod hurt, obviously, but it would be kinda nice for him to take out on Braden the years of unwarranted abuse he's taken from the dozens of people who have used him as an easy target over the years.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
