Despite not getting a hit Miguel Tejada took matters into his own hands in a "Battle of the Birds" the other day.
After striking out against former teammate BJ Ryan in the eighth inning with a tying runner on second a frustrated Miguel gave boisterous Blue Jays fans the finger while making his way back to the dugout.
What exactly Miguel might have been "pointing out" is up for debate (let us know what you think in our poll below) but his punishment was handed down late yesterday. Luckily for Tejada he was only fined so the current O's shortstop won't miss any games as he attempts to run down former Oriole icon and ironman Cal Ripken. (MT is 7th on the all-time list with over 1030+ consecutive games yet he still isn't even halfway to Cal's 2,632).
The bottom line is Tejada is a gamer. Thewadeblogs.com respects the fact even when MT goes "O-for" the ever passionate player feels compelled to "represent" the birds by flashing the bird. Plus to put this incident into perspective one only has to flashback briefly to realize that this is one of the birds least egrecious gestures given their recent woeful ways:
1. Robbie Alomar's "spit ball" fired into an umpire's face
2. Jeffrey Mair single handedly influences the outcome of a pivotal playoff game when interferes with O's outfileder Tony Tarasco
3. Billy Ripken's infamous Fleer baseball card aka the "F*ck Face"
4. Skipper Earl Weaver kicks dirt on umps on countless occasions
5. Raffy Palmeiro points fingers in the Oriole's clubhouse (actuallly at Tejada) after his own steroid debaccle
So where would you rank Tejada's "Bird" in the top 5 above? Comment below and also vote in our poll.
Roid Rage if you ask me.
Posted by: WBRS Sports Blog | 08/11/2006 at 10:08 AM