The Washington Post

Matt Williams was mad at Wilson Ramos


* The Tater Trot Tracker chimes in with an exact measurement of 28.94 seconds for Ramos’s jaunt. As I noted, his three previous home run trots clocked in at 22.58, 23.99 and 23.81 seconds. One of those four numbers is an outlier. Quoting Larry Granillo at length:

Ramos began his trot as normal, not sure if the ball would sail out. By the time he reached first, it was clearly gone. At that moment, you can see Ramos slow down some. My first thought, as I watched the home run the first time, was that it looked like Ramos had slowed down into his final walk - you know how trotters tend to slow down those last 10 or 15 feet before home plate - about 250 feet too early.

But it only got worse. At both second and third base, you can see Ramos go into an even slower trot before essentially strolling the last 45 feet....When I interviewed Duane Kuiper, he told me that the one trotter he admired more than anyone else was Matt Williams, for his no-nonsense way of rounding the bases....

(And, in case anyone was wondering, this is the most spite-filled home run trot I’ve seen since Jose Bautista showed up the Yankees last year.)



“And that,” Mark Grace said, “is a very slow trot. In other words, little bit of neener neener neener right there.”

Then the cameras showed Williams.

“Exactly,” Grace said. “Matt Williams none too pleased. It would be a good idea to avoid Matt Williams if you’re wearing a nationals jersey right now. I’ve seen that look. And usually if that look is directed towards you, folks? Go home. I suggest you go home when Matt Williams looks at you like that. There’s the home run, and then the slow trot begins.”


“Slow trot?” Grace replied. “It’s just a big here’s to you.”

“Ok,” the play-by-play man said. “I guess if you feel like if your guy was hit up near the head intentionally, you’re pretty upset. Espinosa was hit high up on that back.”


“And Ramos gonna take the slow trek around the bases,” the play-by-play man, Greg Schulte, said.

“Boy is he ever,” said color man Tom Candiotti. “You could almost time him with an hour glass right now.”

“Matt Williams realllllly looking over at that Washington bench,” Schulte said, “and most notably at Ramos, who took a [stroll] around the bases. And Matty is one red hot Diamondback over in that dugout

“Oh, he should be,” Candiotti said. “Anybody watching a kind of trot like that, you better file that one, because that’s really showing somebody up. Matty Williams, when he hit a home run, it didn’t matter how it was, he got around the bases. And so that really bothers him....That’s only his fourth home run of the year. You don’t deserve to barely tiptoe around the bases on your fourth home run.”


Dan Steinberg writes about all things D.C. sports at the D.C. Sports Bog.

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