ST. LOUIS — The Los Angeles Dodgers never will convert 99.9 percent of St. Louis Cardinals fans over to their side. But surely they won points with those at Busch Stadium who probably expected Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig to ignore the signs made to antagonize them before Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Friday night.
Instead, the players laughed it up. Gonzalez and Puig even came over to the Cardinals side of the field in order to autographs the signs made by Cardinals Sign Guy Marty Prather. The subject matter of the signs, while certainly safe for work, was not particularly complimentary to either player.
Gonzalez's sign evoked the "Mickey Mouse" sub-theme of the NLCS, giving Gonzalez mouse ears and photoshopping him onto the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. (Gonzalez's ears kind of stick out.) The words "Dumbo and Dumber" were added at the bottom.
Prather brought back the Cardinals' Rally Squirrel, the 26th rodent on the 2011 World Series champion squad, juxtaposing it in order to mock Puig — who does have some erratic-looking movements in the outfield.
Molly Knight of ESPN was alert and ready to capture the moment when Puig and Gonzalez saw themselves in the sign. Far from insulted, they obviously thought it was funny and seemed to appreciate the attention. Presumably, Gonzalez filled in Puig at some point as to the deeper meaning of the squirrel. Not that it really matters.
The NLCS still has yet to be played out on the field, but the Dodgers already have won on a secondary level. It's not that the Cardinals haven't been having fun, but they come off as a little uptight sometimes. Apparently it's just not their style.
Shane Robinson, who is starting Game 6 in center field, even said as much during a pregame interview, recalling the pinch-hit home run he hit in Game 4.
"Obviously, I wanted to celebrate a little bit more, but just trying to be smart with my actions and kind of keep everything even with my emotions and not really let it get the best of me," Robinson said. "But I was very excited."
We're going to have to take his word for it. The Dodgers aren't as reticent to express themselves.
(Big League Stew)
They continued to have fun throughout the pregame stretch, with Puig and Gonzalez putting on a faux boxing match that ended on the first "punch" (landed by Gonzalez). Puig also put Dee Gordon into a fireman carry/airplane spin but did not throw him to the ground.
(Big League Stew)
The Dodgers might not win, but nobody could accuse them of being too tight.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rdbrown@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
via Y! Sports Blogs - Yahoo Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/yasiel-puig-adrian-gonzalez-laugh-off-rally-squirrel-004506670--mlb.html
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