September 20th, 2016 at 12:00 pm 
by Ron Cervenka You can try to doll it up with words like intensity, frustration, competitiveness – but the simple blatant truth is that Giants ace Madison Bumgarner is an unstable headcase. The problem is, he is a headcase armed with a dangerous, even potentially deadly weapon – a rock that he can throw at you – with very good accuracy – at 94 MPH. And make no mistake about it, he has done it before. Fortunately, no one has been seriously injured by his instability, not yet, anyway.
There is no disputing that Bumgarner – or “MadBum,” as he is affectionately (and appropriately) called – does not like Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig and, in all likelihood, the feeling is mutual. But when a 27-year-old major league pitcher acts like a schoolyard bully, it sends up a red flag to those in charge of him … or at least it should.
It was three years ago that Bumgarner first exhibited his disdain for Yasiel Puig. In his second big league season, Puig homered off of MadBum and while rounding third base, Bumgarner approached Puig while he was nearing home plate and shouted something antagonistic to the Dodger outfielder and Puig responded by shouting back at him. Although benches did not clear and the moment passed (with Puig stepping on home plate), it was the beginning of a less-than-warm relationship between the two. It was also entirely Bumgarner’s doing. Puig did nothing more than hit a home run off of the Giants left-hander.
Bumgarner took exception when Puig homered off of him back on May 9, 2014. This would be the beginning of MadBum’s hatred of Puig based entirely on his inability to control his emotions.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
On Monday night in the bottom half of the seventh inning, Puig hit a soft grounder slowly down the first base line that was fielded by Bumgarner and thrown to Giants first baseman Brandon Belt for what should have been a routine, uneventful third out in the then 1-0 game with the Giants leading. But instead, Bumgarner being Bumgarner, he couldn’t just walk off the field. No, the unstable lefty just couldn’t let the fact that Puig had collected the only hit of the night (to that point, at least) – a harmless double in the second inning. In fact, Bumgarner was throwing a stellar game, having allowed just that one hit to Puig while walking none and striking out 10. Like I said, stellar.
But instead of doing the right thing, MadBum just couldn’t let it go and shouted at Puig “What the **** are you looking at? Don’t look at me.” To this, Puig hollered back “Why are you looking at me?” And with that, the two began to charge each other and both benches and bullpens cleared in a punchless and only slight shoving near-brawl ensued; but the potential was certainly there for what could have been a very ugly situation.
“All I know is that Yasiel took a checked swing, ran hard down the baseline and didn’t say a thing,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts of this latest Bumgarner meltdown. “He heard something from Bumgarner so he responded. I know our guy didn’t initiate anything.”
Same old same old – Bumgarner’s short fuse reared it’s ugly head again for absolutely no reason at all, which yet again substantiates that he clearly has serious anger management issues.
“I just ran and he was looking in my direction and he asked me why I was looking at him and then I asked him why he was looking at me,” said Puig through an interpreter after the game.
When asked why he thought Bumgarner did this, Puig gave the only logical explanation to an otherwise illogical situation.
“Maybe because it was the only hit made him get angry,” Puig said. “Every time I face him it seems like we have those problems and it seems to work out because we win.”
…and they did, by a score of 2-1 on an Adrian Gonzalez walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.
“Just one look … that’s all it took.”
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
Which brings up another question. Why on earth would Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who many consider the best manager in the game today, pull Bumgarner after his seven innings of one-hit ball and 10 strikeouts having thrown only 97 pitches when his bullpen has blown an MLB-leading 29 games (thus far) this season and eight since September 1? One can only assume that the usually cerebral Giants manager was concerned that his star left-hander was angered and frustrated to the point that if Bochy let him go back out in the eighth – regardless of how well MadBum was pitching – that he might hit another Dodger batter (he had already hit two on the night), which would absolutely lead to a brawl.
The problem with this logic – flawed or otherwise – is that Bumgarner will more than likely face the Dodgers again when the two teams meet again in less than a week at AT&T Park in San Francisco. And while a warning to each bench is most certainly unwarranted at this time, you can bet the farm that one will occur the instant a batter is hit by a pitch in that one.
On the lighter side, MadBum’s instability did generate quite a few rather humorous posts on Twitter immediately following the bases-clearing non-brawl, including this graphic from talented cartoonist and T-shirt entrepreneur @DodgersBeat:
Ah yes … September baseball at it finest.
Go Dodgers!
Posted in 
You would think that the greatest post season pitcher in history, (yes, I said it, it’s true), would have the composure and ability to curb his emotions on the field. Bumgarner can’t. He’s a hot head plain and simple. His emotions cost his team the game last night. His act is getting tired.
Bumgarner isn’t a schoolyard bully. His behavior is preschool. I expect Yasiel can always be a means to get Bumgarner out of the game now or at least off his game.
#PuigYourFriendInYourHead
Bumgarner has Puig in his head… and the rest of the Dodger team as well. I fully expect the “Bum” to be exceptionally “Mad” in his next start vs. the Dodgers… if it even happens. Looking ahead, Mad-Bum would have to go on short rest during the last day of the season if he were to face the Dodgers again this year. Depends whether the Giants are still in the Wild Card hunt at that time or not.
Stay tuned!
“It won’t be with my on my deathbed, but I’ll still be in your head”
It isn’t just Puig as Bumgarner has had confrontations with several other ML players including Heyward, DeShields, Will Myers, and others. A different take on Bumgarner; he is big, strong, throws hard, and embraces the role of intimidator. He believes that the intimidation factor gives him an additional weapon when on the mound, similar in that regard to Drysdale, Gibson, Marichal, Pedro Martinez, and Randy Johnson, and he seizes every opportunity to reinforce that reputation.
Bumgarner is indeed all those things but by his childish behavior he forced Bochy to remove him from the game, which is a dividing force in the Giants clubhouse.
I have to admit, however, that this was absolutely epic:
I think Bumgarner diminishes any reputation he is trying to build with that kind of behavior. I see him as a totally different creature than Drysdale, Gibson, Marichal, Martinez and Johnson. They did it simply by a look, demeanor and pitch location. I see Bumgarner as an intimidator wanta be. He is an elite pitcher but doesn’t know how to be an intimidator if he thinks his childish behavior scares anyone.
Can you even imagine Don Drysdale ever saying, “Don’t look at me!”
I did not mean to imply that there was a direct parallel between Bumgarner and the other pitchers I named other than his attempt to intimidate. No way would Drysdale or the others get into such a juvenile confrontation as Bumgarner initiated. However, I personally heard Drysdale yelling at hitters, as well as opposing players in their dugout, during games. And, I have seen the others yelling at hitters during games. Juvenile behavior? How about Clemens throwing the broken bat at Mike Piazza — obvious intent to intimidate.
I know I am in the minority, but I really do not have an issue with Bumgarner’s antics. Childish and boorish? Sure. But it is a different era than with Drysdale, Gibson, and Nolan Ryan. It was well known that Drysdale would throw at a hitter if warranted (or not). Fans of other teams always referred to him as a headhunter. No Dodger fan cared…it was a badge of honor. McCovey said he hated facing Drysdale more than any other pitcher because there was always the threat of him getting drilled. The intimidation worked for Drysdale. Nobody drilled him because the opposing pitcher, and the others in the lineup, knew it would be repaid…multiple times. Umpires knew what he was doing and he did not get tossed for throwing at batters. Different times.
Today, if an umpire even thinks a pitcher is throwing at a hitter, there is an automatic warning (even different pitchers in the same series). So the knockdown pitch is not the same equalizer as it used to be. Bumgarner tries to intimidate with his attitude. Plus he is a big enough country boy to back it up. Maybe it works on some, but it definitely does not with the Dodgers. On Monday night, his attitude cost his team. Let him keep trying. Works for me.
That “country boy” thing bothers me because I’m afraid what might happen if Bumgarner actually got his hands on Yasiel Puig. The “Ryan vs. Ventura” bout comes to mind. Bumgarner’s actually dim enough to do such a thing without provocation, whereas the Ryan/Ventura thing occurred out of settling the unwritten rules of the game.
I’d hate to see Yasiel get injured for no good reason, although I’m certain he’d hold his own.
The ball is now in the Dodgers court.
I was thinking of the Ryan/Ventura episode as well. Nolan Ryan is one of all-time favorites, since his Mets rookie days. I have a picture of that Ryan/Ventura “fight” hanging on my office wall (titled “This Was Not Another No-Hitter).
I have no doubt that Yasiel would never back down, and I get the impression that he would do more than hold his own if Bumgarner wanted to make something more of it. I do see another bat flip in the future, but nothing more.
I feel that there might be something that goes deeper between Bumgarner and Puig. Something we’re not aware of to make Bum react the way he does against Puig for no reason at all. It’s definitely not Puig that’s starting it on the field.
I was glad to see that, for whatever reason, Bum was taken out of the game. Who knows what would’ve occurred if he was still in the game in the ninth.
As a result the Dodgers won a very important game putting them 6 games up, which means they will still me at least 4 games ahead when this series ends.