Dallas Braden Yells At The Police Now

You may remember Dallas Braden from such 2010 classics as yelling "get off my mound" at Alex Rodriguez, this awesome t-shirt commemorating the event and somehow throwing a perfect game against the Rays. He pitched 18.0 innings in 2011 before losing the year to shoulder surgery. In March 2012, Braden had a little more surgery for a partial rotator cuff tear. Now that his left arm is held on with staples, duct tape and unicorn glue, we don't hear that much about Braden.

That was until he showed up for an anti-violence meeting in Stockton, California armed with a baseball bat and ready to yell at some local police. Apparently, there are better places to live in California than Stockton which is on a record setting murder rate pace. Braden claims his grandmother was recently robbed and he was nearly carjacked. Don't fear police-less citizens of *squints* post-apocalyptic Stockton, Braden and his bat Smashy are here for you (until he moves as soon as possible)...

"Arm yourself or get out. It's the Wild West. The Boys In Blue, they're outgunned," Braden told CBS Sacramento.

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"My anger is for the fear of the community. We can't do anything," Braden said. "I walked in there with a bat. It starts there."

Ugh, this is going to be the worst superhero movie since Green Lantern. Braden got into a shouting match (hopefully in the same bloodcurdling tone when A-Rod jogged across his mound) with the police chief about the escalation in violent crimes, his walk rate and home run to fly ball ratio. Sorry, allegedly yelled about his BB/9 and HR/FB%.

While no winner of the shouting match was declared, it's safe to assume Braden injured his vocal chords and was placed on the community 15-day disabled list.

I Want A "Get Off My Mound" T-Shirt

Dallas Braden is kind of back in the news for the third time this season. The first time was because of the altercation Braden had with Alex Rodriguez when the slugger trotted across Braden's mound on his way back to first base. This prompted a war of words between the two which reached its peak when Braden's grandma told A-Rod to "stick it." Nice mouth, grans. Then Braden threw an improbable perfect game. Now he's back in the news because he came out against the A's new "Get Off My Mound" t-shirt referring back to his words during the scuffle with A-Rod.

Obviously Braden is just ashamed of the manner in which he acted, right? Maybe not. The A's didn't get the MLBPA's approval for licensing of the shirt and that means no mention of Braden's name or number. Which means no extra cash for Dallas either. He hasn't mentioned the lack of financial gain but he did express his outrage...

"They're trying to generate revenue, trying to get butts in the seats, I can see that," Braden said. "It's almost like, at what cost do you do that? They didn't have permission. They were told on multiple occasions that, no, it's not a good idea. It's not going to be approved. They just kind of put the horse-blinders on and ran with it."

Braden would go on to argue that the shirt is pitting himself and A-Rod against each other. Of course the shirt wouldn't exist if Braden hadn't coined the phrase while yelling at A-Rod and almost inciting a brawl. So A-Rod has to be pretty miffed too, huh?

"I hope I get a cut," Rodriguez told reporters.

Not only isn't A-Rod upset by the shirt but he broke out in laughter when Robinson Cano sported the shirt before Monday's game against the A's. I reluctantly like Robby Cano a little more now. Great. Also, if anybody in the Oakland area is reading this, I'll take a large.