Standing Up to the Evil Empire

As a fan of dominant pitching performances, I always find myself rooting for pitchers to complete near no-hitters and perfect games.  Even in 2004 when, at the age of 40, Randy Johnson was mowing down the Braves en route to perfection, I found myself conflicted.  While I wanted the Braves to win the game (they ended up losing just 2-0, so a victory was certainly within reach), at the same time I wanted to witness the Big Unit do what, at that time, had only been done sixteen other times in Major League Baseball history.  So, if I was (sort-of) rooting for Johnson, it goes without saying that I was rooting for Dallas Braden to throw his perfect game versus Tampa Bay on Sunday.

The fact that Braden was the same pitcher who stood up to Alex Rodriguez regarding the Yankees slugger's waltz across the pitchers mound during a game in late April is, in my opinion, no coincidence.  In baseball and other professional sports, karma plays a large role.  When you do good, you are rewarded by the baseball gods; when you do wrong, those same forces punish you.  When Braden called out the mighty A-Rod for jogging over the mound after making an out on April 22, there was much debate about who was the guilty party.  Had an ignorant Rodriguez violated an unwritten baseball rule, or had an unpolished Braden overstepped his bounds by lashing out at the superstar?  While baseball's talking heads debated the conflict endlessly, it was clear that this was one for the gods to decide.

After Braden completed his perfect game yesterday, it's clear that the young hurler was rewarded for standing up for himself.  While essentially every other baseball player, coach and media personality is terrified to say anything negative about the Yankees (even when the Mitchell Report was practically printed on pinstriped paper), the brash Braden wasn't afraid to speak up and defend his turf.  As a result, he was rewarded with Sunday's perfect game, prompting his own grandmother to jump on the bandwagon and give Rodriquez some advice via a local news reporter: "Stick it, A-Rod."  For those of us who are not Yankee sympathizers, witnessing Dallas Braden's perfect game was a small victory for the players and fans who don't enjoy watching the Yankees outspend every other team by eighty percent, receive national television coverage every week and make the playoffs every season.

It's clear that Braden's feud with A-Rod earned the A's starter some major points with the men upstairs.  The question is: if talking back to A-Rod got Braden a perfect game, what can other players expect to receive in exchange for similar anti-Yankee sentiment?  If Shin-Soo Choo gives Mark Teixeira a Wet Willie the next time he reaches first base at Yankee Stadium, will he have a three homer game later in the season?  Maybe if Martin Prado knees Robinson Cano in the groin he'll hit for the cycle a month later?  Could Dontrelle Willis win the Cy Young by urinating into the Yankees Gatorade cooler?  There's only one way to find out.