In the wake of the Dallas Braden-Alex Rodriguez tiff, I asked FOX’s Tim McCarver if the A’s left-hander was justified in telling A-Rod, “This is my mound, my rubber.”
“Absolutely — I love that,” McCarver said. “That’s his space. You don’t see any starting pitchers in the batter’s box, do you? You don’t see pitchers go in the batter’s box, dig in, anything like that. So why should hitters be allowed on the mound?”
Braden grew upset during the sixth inning Thursday when Rodriguez cut across the mound while returning to first base on a foul ball.
McCarver, who spent 21 years in the majors as a catcher, said Braden is not the first pitcher to consider such an act a violation of baseball etiquette.
“The first person that I ever heard refer to the mound as his office was Gibson,” McCarver said, referring to his former teammate, Hall of Famer Bob Gibson. “And (Steve) Carlton picked that up.
“In fact, when Pete Rose would make an out — particularly on a flyball unless it was the third out of an an inning — he would intentionally run over the back of the mound on his way back to the dugout if the dugout was on the third-base side. He would intimidate rookie pitchers in that regard.
“He tried that once with Gibson in the mid-60s and Gibson threw at him the next time up. Pete spat at him. And the next one was a lot closer. Pete didn’t spit the second time.”
Gibson’s philosophy?
“You never come into my office unless you’re invited — and you’ll never be invited,” McCarver said. -Ken Rosenthal
Fox Sports
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