“[I was] coming off the field and he approached me,” Backe said. “I don’t know. It’s apparent that we don’t like each other. That’s OK. There’s plenty of people I don’t like in this game. It doesn’t matter. It’s baseball. It’s the way it goes. The competition between he and I just escalated and it’s OK. It’s no big deal. This is what makes it fun.”
Backe said. “I felt like he confronted me at the wrong time. I don’t think it was very professional on his part. It’s OK. Cooper was there, and he heard everything. It wasn’t going to go any farther than what it did. He had to say his piece to me, I said my piece to him and that’s it.”
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How the Candyasses saw it,
As the Cardinals began batting practice, Houston pitcher Brandon Backe yelled at Pujols from the Astros’ side of the diamond. Manager Cecil Cooper had to get between the two players,
Shortly after things simmered on the Astros side of the field, manager Tony La Russa and Houston catcher Brad Ausmus spoke for awhile. Then Ausmus went up and carried on a lengthy conversation with Pujols at first base. The topic was clear: how much of the plate Towles allowed Pujols to slide to and whether or not Pujols had another route to the plate other than through Towles.
“There was no problem with the slide, and I am surprised that they have this kind of reaction,” La Russa said. ”That’s what I’m saying.”
“I thought Albert did him a favor by just sliding to his legs out,” La Russa told the media earlier this afternoon. “The kid is not giving anything to slide at, so that’s what we teach to slide and take the legs not (not the body). He’s going to get blasted one of these days.”
In their conversation after the game, Towles said Pujols expressed that he didn’t see any of the plate to slide to. Towles saw it differently. Though he understood why Pujols called.
“I accepted his apology,” Towles said. “I gave him enough of the plate. … I give runners the plate to keep everybody from getting hurt.”
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Hey Grandma, if Towles was in the wrong, how come your boy friend apologized?