LEFTOVERS: San Diego fracas not so classy
Few positives came out of Thursday night’s brawl between the Dodgers and Padres at Petco Park.
Carlos Quentin looked like a foolish bully by charging the mound after a clearly unintentional beaning, and Zack Greinke came across as pathetic with his feeble attempt at shoulder-blocking the oncoming outfielder only to suffer a broken collarbone.
Then Matt Kemp waited until Quentin was in the parking lot to try to exact revenge for his injured teammate.
One breakout performance stole the show, however. Whoever runs the Dodgers’ Twitter account triumphantly made the feed a must-follow with a nearly perfect post.
“See you Monday in Los Angeles,” the tweet read, previewing the fact the teams play again after a weekend respite. Attached was a photo of one of the most famous San Diegans in movie history, Ron Burgundy. The picture was captioned with the anchorman’s catchphrase, “You stay classy, San Diego.”
Meanwhile, Quentin became the most hated San Diego resident since Jack Black’s “Anchorman” character after he punted Baxter off the bridge.
One can only imagine him talking to his teammates after the game: “Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast!”
Social media still is buzzing in anticipation of Monday’s rematch. Officials from both teams and Major League Baseball are hoping the scene doesn’t resemble the news team brawl scene.
Hopefully no one pulls a Brick Tamland and stabs someone in the heart.
■ FACE THE FACTS — Two London researchers released a study that links a specific feature to home run production in baseball.
Hikaru Tsujimura and Michael J. Banissy, researchers from the psychology department at Goldsmiths, University of London, studied two seasons of Japanese baseball and concluded players with wider faces hit more home runs.
Yahoo! baseball blog Big League Stew wrote about the findings with skepticism.
“It sounds like a clubhouse prank,” the blog post read. “Can’t you just imagine Nick Swisher running around telling guys, ‘Did you hear that if your hand is bigger than your face, you’re better at hitting home runs?’ then getting all fifth-grade and making teammates smack themselves in the face.”
The study proves two things: London colleges have too much grant money, and steroids apparently make your face wider. Who knew?
■ PUT MY KID IN, COACH — Politicians in Washington might never agree on gun control initiatives, but if both parties were to agree on one thing in this debate, it might be that guns aren’t needed at Little League games.
Of course, every rule has exceptions, and many of those exceptions come from Alabama.
Charles Moshier couldn’t handle his son’s lack of playing time in a 7- and 8-year-old league game in Moody, Ala., so he pulled a gun on the coach.
Another parent and a city employee restrained Moshier until police arrived.
His son immediately was brought in to pitch, in case the mother was packing heat in her purse.
COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
