Dallas Braden sat for an interview with CSN’s Mychael Urban and the subject of the whole A-Rod-on-the-mound thing came up:
Urban: 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?Dallas Braden: Well, I mean that’s pretty much the long and
the short of it. You know, on a serious note, obviously there’s things
that are going to have to happen–just out of respect for my teammates,
out of respect for the game. I think he’s probably garnered a new
respect for the unwritten rules, and people who hold them close to their
game. But yeah I think you’re right–we don’t do much talking in the
209.
I realize people disagree about this incident. Some people think A-Rod was out of line, some people think that Braden was being way too touchy, some people think a little of both was going on.
But I think we can all agree on one thing: referring to where you come from as “the [area code]” is impossibly lame. Especially when your area code covers freakin’ Modesto, California.