Ryan Braun warned us about Zack Greinke. The Milwaukee Brewer leftfielder told Yahoo! Sports last week, “There’s not much that Zack does that’s smooth or cool … we’ll give him a pass for being awkward, because he lives his life awkwardly.”
Saturday, Greinke popped off, telling reporters that his teammates take offense when Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter shouts at batters. “His presence, his attitude out there sometimes is like a phony attitude. He yells at people. He just stares people down and stuff. And most pitchers just don’t do that. But when you do that some people will get mad.”
Time out. Pitching change. If Greinke would like to begin evaluating professional athlete etiquette, he should start in his own clubhouse before calling out the opposition. Greinke has a team — Nyjer Morgan — who promotes a self-created alter ego. It was Morgan, aka, Tony Plush, jumped around Miller Park, shouting and dropping F-bombs on TBS after the series clincher against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was Morgan who started the shouting match after Carpenter struck him out during a game last month, then jumped on Twitter, and called the Cardinals “those crying birds,” then referred to Albert Pujols as “Alberta.”
Talk about phony?
Despite his well-chronicled social anxiety disorder, Greinke does not deserve “a pass” for his comments. If he feels “awkard” and “lives his life awkardly” don’t become a nuisance and make things worse. If you step back and look at the big picture, Greinke’s comments come off as hypocritical.
If Greinke wants to shut up Carpenter and the Cardinals, do it on the field. He will get his first opportunity in Game One of the National League Championship Series tonight.
