Barry Zito Plunked Prince Fielder For Six-Month Old Baseball Justice

Pitchers always work on their command in Spring Training, so occasionally the ball gets away from a guy. But when Barry Zito hit Prince Fielder in the bottom of the first inning of the first Cactus League game between the Giants and Brewers, it wasn't a lack of command. It was payback.
 

It was September 6, 2009 when Prince Fielder hit a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 12th inning to give the Milwaukee Brewers a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants. The Giants, still in the playoff hunt at the time, were just ending a tough road trip and didn't take too kindly to Fielder's home run celebration.

It was one of those great late-season baseball games that featured some incredible defense – so good that a triple play wasn't even the top defensive play in the game – and the extra-inning walk-off shot that was obviously cathartic for the then-struggling Brewers. Fielder called the celebration a "team thing." Here is a quote from the San Francisco Chronicle story the next day, titled "Fielder celebration irks players":

"Did you see that celebration?" bench coach Ron Wotus asked. "You would like to think professionals would have a lot more respect for the game and their opponents. That was choreographed."

To the video tape:

The Giants waited six months to get a little payback. Call that Cactus Justice. Fielder took the beaning in stride, telling Chris Haft of MLB.com:

"They have to do what they have to do. Whatever," he said. "I didn't see anything coming, but they have to do what they have to do. It's not going to take it away. It's chronicled. ... It is what it is. I hit the home run. Hit me. If that's what you've got to do, then that's what you've got to do."

Zito played it off as nothing more than trying to work Fielder inside, saying, "We were just trying to go in there hard. It's not something we thought about for months and months."

Personally, I think Zito should answer all questions like this with, "look, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.