Fair enough. I Thumbs Upped you for holding your ground and keeping it classy.

One last point I’d like to make though . . . we are always trying to teach the kids (especially the young ones) to have fun while playing. I have seen first hand how ugly parents can be when it comes to their kids not playing well or grasping a skill (at baseball clinics no less).

In an idealistic baseball world, should MLB’ers only be allowed to smile or laugh at themselves when they score a run or make a big play in the field? Or should we recognize that its healthy to laugh on the rare occasion that serious players like Braun do a face plant while rounding third base?

Again, I already said I was probably a little harsh on the guy for saying he didn’t hustle back to third. I agree that he was hustling all the way, accidentally fell, and then was too gassed to make the rundown competitive. I was 100% wrong to question Braun’s hustle.

Now, I watched both feeds again, and the second one is even more egregious to me. The guy falls and is literally laughing as he falls. Then he is laughing again as he gets up. Then he is smiling and laughing as he gets tagged out at third. I just don’t like it. Not Braun. Not his hustle. Not the falling down and not hustling back up. Just the laughing and smiling.

And I’m never shy about being “that caller” because I say what I feel. I don’t worry about how many thumbs ups and downs I get. One thing you will always get from me is 100% how I feel. I may be wrong, but I come by it honestly.

I really don’t take any of this personally, and sure hope you don’t either. I can sometimes be a bull in a china shop with the way I approach commenting. I may zing some textual daggers or attack the comments of someone who I don’t agree with . . . but its always in good fun and never personal.

Now, let’s use sports talk radio as an example. Whatever the topic there always seems to that one caller who makes a completely outlandish comment. Your comment about Braun is tantamount to being that caller.

In slow-mo, it’s clear that Braun’s legs pretty much gave out on him. He attempted to get up and keep running, but he couldn’t his legs under him. This probably a mix of muscle exhaustion and oxygen depletion.

Nearly everyone who has run a race, or done a series of sprints, played soccer, etc . . . can relate to what Braun had happen to him last night. By the time he did get his feet under him he had a near zero chance of escaping the rundown.

And that’s why your comment has been greeted with such derision.

Here’s how I think it would have happened if it were Utley. He gets tagged out, walks back to the dugout with a scowl, Jimmy Rollins says something funny, some other guys smile, Chase gives a half-hearted semi-grin, then sits down. And nobody goes near him. For the rest of the game.

That’s the intensity I like. Then, when he wins a championship, it makes it all the more fun when he’s the guy who yells WORLD F’ING CHAMPIONS. But that’s just me.

Also, couldn’t the same thing have been said about Braun before yesterday’s events? Wouldn’t that put a gaping hole in your logic?

Incidentally, I was lampooning the reaction to Kendrys Morales and Buster Posey incidents, so maybe my attempt at humor wasn’t as funny as I thought it was . . . but just to be clear it wasn’t a negative comment toward Braun.

I know when I make a mistake on something easy my first reaction is to laugh at what a doofus I was. He was probably just imagining himself at the top of SportsCenter’s Not Top Ten list.

There’s really no reason for any of you to take what I am saying personal. I bet Ryan Braun himself would see where I am coming from.

Ask yourself this question: is Braun known for fumbling around the bases, not hustling and getting caught in run downs?

Or is he known for his hustle and passion for playing the game right?

Go ahead . . . now attempt to make a link between this isolated freak incident and his contract extension.

Checkmate.

Manny Ramirez, Ryan Braun is not. And besides Manny wouldn’t have even been around 3rd.

But I also think who WOULDN’T have smiled. And on THAT list is some of my favorite all-time players. You know…names like Chase Utley, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan, and Jason Varitek just to name a few.

Like I said…I know I am in the minority here and I’m not saying anything to change anyone’s mind. He smiled, most people liked it including him, Reggie miller, and most of the Milwaukee crowd. That’s there prerogative as much as it’s mine to think it was wrong to smile.

Maybe I was a hit harsh on him not hustling I will give you that. But the smiling was what really got me more than anything.