Ryan Braun is not naive. He’s not some innocent ballpark baby face who gets his words twisted by the evil, conniving media.
No, when it comes to the media, Braun knows exactly what he’s doing. The guy’s got more polish than a drill sergeant’s boots. He’s perfected the art of athlete-speak, of saying all the right things at all the right times. Of talking for 15 minutes and saying nothing at all.
Usually, Braun’s press sessions have all the excitement of a timeshare sales pitch, only without the free weekend in Vail. You’d think he majored in public relations. Or, at the very least, took notes when Crash Davis taught clichés (link warning for dirty words) in the classic Bull Durham scene.
So when Braun says something headline-inducing, chances are overwhelming that he meant to do it. Slips of the tongue are simply not in Braun’s makeup. He’s one calculating Californian, approaching the media in the same way that he approaches baseball – with discipline.
Keep that in mind when you see the headlines Braun made with his Sunday afternoon comments at the conclusion of a bad series against the Chicago Cubs. His words were wide-ranging. He called out Milwaukee’s pitching staff. (“I think when you’re constantly behind in games, it’s not easy and it’s not fun.”) He pressured general manager Doug Melvin to make a trade. (“We’re at the point right now where it would be important for us to go out there and acquire somebody.”) Heck, he even said he wouldn’t mind having Melvin’s job. (“I wish I got to make decisions like that.”) That’s a lot of fodder from a quickie postgame presser. It’s not the first time Braun’s delivered a midseason broadside. Back in May of 2008, Milwaukee lost three straight games to Boston and fell to last place in its division. Braun responded by questioning his teammates’ character, saying they didn’t “expect to win.” The Brewers, in turn, responded by becoming the league’s best team for the next month or two. This year, Braun’s quotes didn’t just make big news here, but on the national sports scene as well. The story was front-page material on ESPN.com Monday morning and national sports radio hosts also took notice. So we didn’t just read about it in Milwaukee; everybody in baseball did. And now you know what it takes to get Milwaukee in the spotlight. What remains to be seen is whether or not Braun’s comments will make big waves within the clubhouse. In going after the pitchers, he picked some easy targets. The two hurlers who pitched poorly against Chicago – Seth McClung and Mike Burns – aren’t Brewers stalwarts who will lead a civil war uprising in the dugout. They’re fill-ins for the pitching rotation, and the Brewers don’t have too much invested in either. But will others in the clubhouse see this as Braun leading a rallying cry? Or will some see a star picking on guys who can’t hope to match him in the megaphone department? If that balancing act falls the wrong way, this is exactly the type of thing that could divide the team. It’s already gone over the wrong way with Melvin, and Braun certainly didn’t make his job any easier. Not because Milwaukee’s GM can’t handle a little criticism – on the contrary, Melvin’s as professional as they come in that respect. The problem is, Braun just made it harder for Melvin to make a deal. Opposing GMs will certainly use Braun’s comments, and the perception that Melvin’s under pressure to make a move, as leverage against the Brewers. And it’s not like the Brewers had a lot of leverage to begin with. Right now, it’s a big-time seller’s market. None of this should come as news to Braun, so you have to figure he’s playing an angle here. Maybe he thinks he can fire up the team heading into a crucial homestand. Maybe he’s trying to take the attention off others after a difficult stretch and put the focus on himself. Or maybe he’s just laying the groundwork to take over Milwaukee’s GM job in 2029. Whatever the goal, Braun better hope he’s right. One of the great strengths of this Brewers team has been its clubhouse chemistry. But when you’re playing around in chemistry class, sometimes things explode. Can Wave Be Saved? They held the Milwaukee Wave press conference right on the U.S. Cellular Arena field Monday afternoon. As a matter of fact, it was right in front of one of the goals. Which makes all the sense in the world. Because right now, this team requires one heck of a save. The Milwaukee Wave needs a new owner, and it needs one within two weeks. Otherwise, the nation’s longest continually operating professional soccer franchise will cease to exist. The problems facing the Wave are not small. The team has watched two separate leagues fold underneath it in the past year (though there’s a third league, ostensibly in stable financial shape, that would welcome the Wave with open arms.) And like everyone else, the team has been hit by the economic crisis. So has current owner Charles Krause, who admits he “was not immune to the financial situation that developed,” a reality that helped force his hand to sell. Still, Krause doesn’t think the Wave is a lost cause financially. Far from it. He says a new owner would inherit no debt and that he “will seriously consider any reasonable offer.” Moreover, he predicts the team should break even and move into the black in 2010. But first, the team has to survive that long. So Krause, head coach Keith Tozer and even Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett pleaded their case to the public on Monday. “It is a great community asset and one we do not want to lose,” Barrett said, noting that thousands of children benefit from Wave soccer camps each year. Should the Wave disappear, Barrett said, “I want everybody in the community to know that we would be the losers.” And Tozer, who has coached the team for 17 years and brought the city four championships (more than the Milwaukee Brewers, Bucks and Admirals combined), was not ready to give up on his team. “We’ve got to find a way, no matter how bleak it looks,” Tozer said. Toward that end, the team has launched a “Save the Wave” campaign. The goal is to get 2,000 season ticket commitments, proof to a future owner that he or she could count on a strong fan base. Krause wouldn’t be specific on a sales price, but he did tell me this: “It’s not a million.” And Journal Sentinel sports business writer Don Walker reports sources told him an initial commitment of less than $500,000 would be considered. Whatever the exact figure is, one thing is clear. Krause doesn’t seem to care about making a pile of cash on this deal. His main goal is simple. “I want to find a way to keep the Wave going,” Krause said. Here’s hoping for a high tide. Connect the Favre Dots Surely these two storylines are completely unrelated, right? Why would the Minnesota Vikings suddenly require anyone buying tickets for the Oct. 5 game against Green Bay to also buy tickets to an exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs? Because they really want fans to see Matt Cassell? And why would a certain quarterback and his wife drop $30,000 for a deposit on a condominium within punting distance of the Vikings’ practice facility? Because Edina, Minn., has a lot in common with Kiln, Miss.? That Favre to the Vikings countdown is getting shorter by the day. No ballgame to watch? No problem. Check out our new TV Guru column to get the lowdown on your remote control options. Feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I tweet as howiemag. 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