Uribe’s Gesture Turns Brewers’ Win Into Something Much Bigger

Cardinal Chronicle
Uribe’s Gesture Turns Brewers’ Win Into Something Much Bigger
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

MILWAUKEE — The Cardinals were already dealing with enough trouble Tuesday night. Another shutout loss. Another quiet night at the plate. Another division game slipping away in a stretch where St. Louis can ill afford to keep giving ground.

Then Abner Uribe turned a 6-0 Brewers victory into something else entirely.

Milwaukee’s hard-throwing right-hander struck out Alec Burleson looking to end the eighth inning with two Cardinals aboard. The call was challenged through the automated ball-strike system and upheld. Before the review was even settled, Uribe celebrated, turned toward the Cardinals’ dugout and made multiple lewd gestures in the direction of the visiting club. MLB.com described the gestures as directed toward the visitors’ dugout, and Brewers manager Pat Murphy later called the display “unacceptable.”

That should have been the easy part.

A player crossed the line. His manager knew it. Murphy did not dress it up, excuse it or hide behind the final score. He said he had already spoken to Uribe and would not be surprised if Major League Baseball took action. That was the proper response from Milwaukee’s manager.

But Uribe’s own response is where the story took another turn.

Uribe apologized to the Brewers, his teammates, his manager and club officials. He did not apologize to the Cardinals. Instead, he pointed blame toward St. Louis, claiming Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol had made gestures during Monday’s game that Uribe interpreted as signs the Cardinals might throw at Brewers hitters. Uribe also referenced an incident during Tuesday’s practice but declined to explain it. The Cardinals denied the allegations when informed of them after their clubhouse had closed to reporters.

That is the part that should not be brushed aside.

Baseball has always had room for emotion. It has always had room for hard feelings, stare-downs, inside fastballs and a little old-fashioned dugout barking. Nobody around this game should pretend otherwise. But there is a difference between playing with an edge and turning toward another club’s dugout with a six-run lead to make it personal.

Iván Herrera, who had drawn a walk earlier in the inning and was on base when the incident occurred, said Uribe had thrown a high-and-tight fastball near his head before the two exchanged words. Herrera called Uribe’s dugout gesture disrespectful to the entire team and said if Uribe had an issue with him, he had the chance to say it directly.

That was the right point.

If there is a problem between players, handle it between players. If there is a problem between dugouts, let managers handle it. But making a public show of it toward an entire club, then apologizing to everyone except the team you targeted, leaves the Cardinals with little reason to simply tip their cap and move along.

The game itself was bad enough for St. Louis. Kyle Harrison held the Cardinals to four hits over six scoreless innings, extending his shutout streak to 18 innings. The Cardinals finished without an extra-base hit, went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and lost for the fifth time in six games. Michael McGreevy was charged with five runs over four-plus innings, and Milwaukee broke the game open with a five-run fifth.

But by the end of the night, the box score was no longer the whole story.

The Brewers won the game. Uribe won the inning. Murphy won the postgame by saying plainly what needed to be said.

Uribe, however, left the Cardinals without the one thing that should have been offered first: an apology to the team he disrespected.

And with another game still to play in Milwaukee, that is not a small detail.

Photo Credit: Dairy Land Express

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