Prince Fielder Home Run Celebration Video: Did Fielder Go Too Far

 

 But if you have any knowledge or appreciation for the culture of baseball, you know Fielder’s stunt was over the top. It was disrespectful. And if he’s going to pull stuff like that, he’s got absolutely no right to take umbrage the next time a pitcher gets revenge with a fastball to the ribs. Hey, he’s got plenty of built-in padding, anyway. Fielder can risk retaliation if he wants. But it seldom ends there. He’s putting his teammates at risk, too, and possibly putting his pitchers in a bad position. But I guess they all were active participants, so maybe all of them should be on alert. 

Baseball has survived all manner of exuberant silliness over the years, from Rube Waddell through Jim Bouton and Dock Ellis and Rickey Henderson to Manny Ramirez today, at least on those blessed occasions when Manny decides to beam in from the Gamma Quadrant. They're all part of baseball's culture, too. And, now, so is the Brewers' silly little bit of choreography. No one's disrespecting anything, except the absurd notion that a baseball game should look like an Elks Lodge meeting.