I don't think i've seen as much showboating on a homer as I did with that one. That was worse than anything pujols or bonds or others have done.
The question is how would you have handled it as manager? Personally, I pull him from the game immediately, pennant race or not, even if it was a close game. The message has to be sent to him that was way out of line.
When they did the review of the game right before the Luke Scott homerun, right after Braun's showboat act, Jimmy D said "that's going to cost him sometime in his next at bat". He meant retaliation of course and I figure it's probably going through the minds of a few pitchers on the Astros. They play again in Houston on the 17th and I wouldn't be surprised the kid is hit in the small of the back for that little show.
One bit of irony is that Vinny Rottino and Humberto Quintero got into a shouting match when Nashville and Round Rock hooked up in a series in Round Rock two weeks ago. A Sound player hit a homerun and refused to run, instead he admired his shot and then trotted around the bases very slowly. The next inning, Quintero hit a homerun to left that was headed to the foul pole. Earlier in the game, third base umpired ruled a Wesson homerun that was very similar a double instead of a homer. The ball clearly bounced off the foul pole and back into the field of play. Jackie Moore was tossed from the game for arguing the call. So Quintero hit the same type of ball towards the foul pole in left and stood to look if it would go foul before he ran. It went fair by about a foot, never touching the foul pole. Quintero sort of did a jig dance when he rounded first and realized it was a fair ball and a homerun. He ran kind of funny for the rest of the way home, in a mocking way (IMHO). Rottino, who was catching and is now on the Brewers team as a September callup, started to yell at Quintero as he approached home plate. The benches emptied but no punches were thrown.
Later in the game, a runner is at third, top of the ninth, one out and the batter hits a medium fly ball to CF. Wesson has one of the better arms on the team (I say he has the best) and gunned the ball home after making the catch. Perfect strike, laser right to Quintero who now had the chance to really take the play to the runner. Humberto literally squashed the guy down ahead of the plate and then held him down with his mitt and body. The Nashville bench came out of the dugout to jump on Quintero and Rottino was the one who was shouting the loudest, once again wanting to fight Humberto.
Both benches emptied, but again no punches were thrown.
