Thanks, Barry Zito!

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Barry Zito is 31-43 since he signed that $126M contract with the San Francisco Giants a few years ago. The fans in San Fran didn’t have a lot of patience with him. At one point the team thought about putting their $18M a year pitcher into the bullpen. His contract was an example of how not to blow millions of dollars if you’re a Major League Baseball team. However, he finally earned his keep yesterday.

All it took was one pitch.

One pitch that drilled Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder directly in the middle of his back. That’s all it took for Zito to be my new hero.

I’m exaggerating, obviously. But if Zito were with me right now, I’d offer to buy him a beer. Maybe even two.

Don’t mistake that as me being anti-Prince Fielder. I’m not. I covered the guy for about five seasons. He’s a tremendous player. He might not be the best sound byte out there, but he’s good in the locker room. He’s a doting father.

The only problem is that he’s a bit of a showboat.

Cardinals fans are all too familiar with Fielder’s tactics. Cardinals fans saw firsthand how the Brewers acted after victories. Teams all around baseball took offense to Milwaukee un-tucking their jerseys after games. Though it was meant to pay honor to former Brewer Mike Cameron’s father, opponents (the Cardinals especially) had a big problem with it.

My colleague Bernie Miklasz wrote a scathing column a couple of years ago taking the entire ballclub to task. It was a column that I totally agreed with – and I was working in Milwaukee at the time! It didn’t necessarily make me Mr. Popular there, but what’s right is right. Bernie was right, and the Brewers were wrong.

It didn’t stop the Brewers, though. They continued to celebrate victories by un-tucking their jerseys. They did that even though their manager (Ken Macha) and future Hall of Fame closer (Trevor Hoffman) refused to do it. Both felt it disrespected the game. They were right.

The Brewers didn’t stop, though. The worst example of their showboating came after Prince Fielder hit a walk-off home run against the Giants at Miller Park on September 6^th. The entire roster met Fielder at home plate, at which point Fielder and his mates did their little ‘bowling pin’ celebration. He braced for contact. They all fell backwards.

The fans at the ball park loved it. No one else did. I spoke with GM Doug Melvin the following day on 101 ESPN. He told me that he didn’t have a problem with it considering the struggles the Brewers had been through all season. I think it was more of a political answer than anything else. Melvin’s an old-school baseball guy at heart (even though he embraces new school baseball trends). My gut tells me what he said and what he really felt probably were two different things. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

The Giants took Fielder’s actions more harshly than anyone else. There had been talk from the moment that game in September ended that there would be ‘consequences.’ So, it should not have been a surprise that the reaction came on the first pitch of Fielder’s first at bat of the spring.

It wasn’t a pitch meant to hurt him (Zito’s not a flame thrower). It was a message pitch. The message was simple. Respect the game. Respect those who play the game.

I don’t know if the message Zito sent will sink in. I covered the Brewers for five years. They have a bit of a swagger to them. Fielder’s a big part of that. So is Ryan Braun – who has a bit of the ‘U’ in him (he went to Miami if you didn’t know).

The problem is the Brewers – with the exception of 2008, when they scrambled to get into the playoffs – have not won. It’s one thing to have that swagger when you are winning and reaching the post-season. It’s another thing to do it when you are losing the way they did a year ago.

Whether you believe in political correctness or not, there are unwritten rules in the game of baseball. Football players don’t get it. Neither do basketball players or hockey players. But there’s a code in baseball. You break that code, you pay for it at some point.

Fielder broke that code last September. He was reminded of that code yesterday.

Thanks, Barry – so what are you drinking? It’s on me.