Watch the video below. Everyone agrees it's funny. But then everyone hastens to add that such a thing is just not done in baseball. The Los Angeles Times asked Torii Hunter what he thought of the celebration. He rolled his eyes:

"I guess it's a different game," he said. "It's all TV, acting, until someone gets hit with a pitch in the chin. I'm old school. I could never do that."

[...]

"If I was a pitcher, I'd be [ticked] off," he said. "My mouth would be wide open. I'd be shocked. Baseball is not like the NFL, where you can celebrate in the end zone. You've got to keep your cool, play the game. You can't do that."

That being said, Hunter did give Fielder and the Brewers points for style.

"I did laugh. I did think it was funny. It was very creative," Hunter said. "But it's a little strong for baseball, because you could have a 90-mph fastball coming at you the next day. You've got to have toughness and heart to do that. It's not for me. If someone did that against us and we played them again, trust me, he'd get crushed, and we'd try to fight him."

And here's Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News:

Look, I'm not against players having fun on the field. It's a game and fans buy tickets to be entertained. Every time a college football player gets flagged for the tiniest bit of exuberance, I shake my head. Let the kid enjoy the moment a little bit, huh?

But if you have any knowledge or appreciation for the culture of baseball, you know Fielder's stunt was over the top. It was disrespectful. And if he's going to pull stuff like that, he's got absolutely no right to take umbrage the next time a pitcher gets revenge with a fastball to the ribs.

Oh, bother. Baseball has survived all manner of exuberant silliness over the years, from Rube Waddell through Jim Bouton and Dock Ellis and Rickey Henderson to Manny Ramirez today, at least on those blessed occasions when Manny decides to beam in from the Gamma Quadrant. They're all part of baseball's culture, too. And, now, so is the Brewers' silly little bit of choreography. No one's disrespecting anything, except the absurd notion that a baseball game should look like an Elks Lodge meeting.

Negative reaction pouring in to Prince Fielder's home run celebration [San Jose Mercury News]
Angels not impressed with Prince Fielder's walk-off celebration [Los Angeles Times]
Fielder's finish irked Giants [Rob Neyer]

Mota was ejected last night after plunking Fielder with one out left in the ninth inning of a 17-4 Dodger blowout. Fielder didn't take kindly to this provocation and was quite vocal about it on the field. However, he felt that he did not completely and accurately make his feelings known, so after the game was over, Prince attempted to storm the Dodger clubhouse. He got the door partially open before security and some of his teammates eventually corralled him and sent him back to his corner.

This is why we need more security cameras in baseball stadiums. Not to prevent crime, but so we can laugh at baseball players when they try to turn postgames into a scene from The Warriors. [UPDATE: And now there's video.] (LAist's detailed diagram is nice, but doesn't quite bring the scene to life.) The teams have one more game left in their season series, but the odds of Mota facing Fielder one more time are remote. So why don't they settle this like men? With a pie eating contest. (Obviously, Fielder's handicap will be enforced.)

Prince Fielder's Trek [LAist]
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Los Angeles Dodgers - Recap - August 04, 2009 [ESPN]

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

If what I heard was correct, Parra was getting ready to leave the dugout after being removed from the game and Fielder took exception to that, with the Brewers batting in the top of the seventh and trying to cut into the 6-1 hole that Parra dug for the team. I heard that Prince yelled at Parra, "We stayed out there and watched your (bleep). You can stay out here and watch our (bleep)."

Parra scooped up his glove and jacket off the bench and it might have come close to swiping Fielder in the face. He took exception to it and went after Parra, shoving him hard twice before teammates restrained him. It was an ugly scene that players basically attributed to "boys will be boys" afterward.

Here's the video:

It all started going south for Milwaukee on July 25, when, ironically, Parra was trying to hold onto a 1-0 lead in the seventh against the Astros. But he loaded the bases with nobody out, and Houston scored all three runs for a 3-1 victory. The Brewers, who were tied for first with the Cubs at the time, have gone 3-8 since, with three losses going to Parra. Milwaukee is now 62-51, five games behind first-place Chicago.

Leave it to JS Online message board commenters to unravel the situation: "come on people. the entire town of cinci smells like chili, so of course prince is going to be on edge." — my name's not Derek

In related news, The Onion may have identified the problem.

Wizard Cat gives this fracas: Three wands.

Is It A Big Deal? [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal]

Father and son share good genes, home-run power and, according to public records, financial issues. Four years ago, The Detroit News reported about how Cecil lost $47 million in career earnings through gambling and bad business decisions. The two reportedly have been estranged since Prince accused his father of keeping $200,000 of the son's $2.4 million signing bonus without permission.

The IRS filed a $409,149 lien against Prince on Oct. 6, 2005, for unpaid income taxes. Apparently it's from 2003, the year after he collected the above-mentioned signing bonus. Shouldn't your agent mention that tax thing? Um, Scott Boras, that's you, right?

IRS Slugs Prince Fielder With Lien [Detroit News]

Moved after reading about how chicken and cattle are treated, Prince Fielder became a vegetarian before this baseball season, a decision that became national news.

The attention was somewhat puzzling. It's not as if Fielder went on an all-mayonnaise diet or began celebrating wins by eating a sheet cake. Vegetarianism is endorsed by the American Dietetic Association and the Dietitians of Canada. It has numerous health benefits; vegetarians have been reported to have lower body mass indices than meat eaters. It's enjoyed by millions, including athletes past (Martina Navratilova) and present.

The Atlanta Hawks' Salim Stoudamire and ultimate fighter Mac Danzig are vegans, which bans eating anything (milk, eggs, honey) from an animal. Tight end extraordinaire Tony Gonzalez went vegan last year, but with a laughable compromise initiated by the Kansas City Chiefs team's nutritionist, Mitzi Dulan, a former vegetarian athlete.

According to the Wall Street Journal, she convinced Gonzalez to have a few servings of chicken and seafood a week.

Fielder, however, is in some foreign territory. The Baseball Hall of Fame has no record of vegetarian home run leaders, and Fielder isn't on pace to get anywhere near last year's total of 50 home runs: he's hit 11 so far this season. Granted, he could go on a tear, but those are the numbers.

Keeping track of Fielder's home run total this season is going to be fun, and not as the evolution of a young slugger or as part of some sport-reviving home run chase with Brewers teammate Ryan Braun. The 24-year-old can establish if there can be a vegetarian home run king while maybe becoming the poster boy for the vegetarian athlete.

"I think that would be a big boost in the mainstream for vegetarianism," says Elizabeth Turner, editor-in-chief of Vegetarian Times. "That is like the last bastion of red meat-eating America—football players and baseball players."

If Fielder gets close to last year's production, he could lend further clarity to the issue of vegetarians and athletics, especially when it comes to strength. A long-held belief is that by eschewing meat, a vegetarian (especially an athlete) misses protein, a lack of which can cause a decrease in muscle mass.

Turner offered several vegetarian replacements that are protein-rich, including meat alternatives tempeh (41 grams per cup) and seitan (31 grams in 3 oz.), cottage cheese (31 grams per cup), and lentils (18 grams per cooked cup).

Iron and zinc are also easily available through meat, but can be found in whole grains, leafy green vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds, says registered dietician Dr. Enette Larson Meyer. Fortified foods and supplements—the right, vegetarian-based ones, not the Barry Bonds ones—can also help.

Before he began his vegetarian journey, Fielder got advice from team nutritionist Dr. Leslie Bonci. It's a good thing he did. According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of “Eat for Health,” the vegetarian diet is "suboptimal" if its focus is on collecting calories and sufficient protein, and not accumulating valuable micronutrients such as zinc and iron.

"I'm critical of almost everyone's diet whether they eat meat or don’t," says Fuhrman, a former world class figure skater. "They almost always have lots of room for improvement."

A properly planned vegetarian diet that fills all of the nutritional gaps should not be cited for a drop in Fielder's numbers or his strength, Fuhrman says. (Keep in mind: Fielder's power draught could be the result of a slump or pitchers getting wise to his long ball tendencies. It’s possible!) Bonci told The New York Times that the body's muscles can't tell the difference between proteins, so whether Fielder gets them from hamburgers or black bean burgers is irrelevant.

The bigger obstacle is adjusting to a new lifestyle, says Larson Meyer, author of “Vegetarian Sports Nutrition” and an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming. It means finding desirable meat substitutes, finding restaurants and food stores that cater to the new diet, and enduring the joking of others.

Larson Meyer says that as long as energy and calorie needs are met and that Fielder eats when he needs to—including a protein and carbohydrate source 30 minutes to an hour after an intense workout to rebuild muscle—he should be able to maintain his performance. But "you have to be dedicated to your cause and purpose," she says.

Others aren't so sure. Dr. Jonny Bowden, a board-certified sports nutritionist and author of the upcoming “The Healthiest Meals on Earth,” says not everyone can handle a vegetarian diet. Vitamin B-12, which Bowden cites as "a big part of energy," comes naturally from meat sources, and the most absorbable form of iron comes from meat. The profiles of soy's amino acids (the building blocks of protein) differ too.

"Soy concentrate may be estrogenic in males and adversely affect testosterone, and hence, strength," explains certified sports nutritionist Rehan Jalali, president of the Supplement Research Foundation and author of “The Six-Pack Diet Plan. “

"I know red meat has been demonized a little, but I think taken in moderation it can really be beneficial to athletes," Jalali adds. "Red meat provides easily absorbed iron, vitamin B-12, zinc, the fat loss nutrient CLA [conjugated linoleic acid], and l-carnitine, which can also support fat loss and muscle energy. It may even have beneficial effects on testosterone levels."

While sympathetic toward animal rights — he doesn't eat pork because of how pigs are treated — Bowden says that "people get so caught up in that, they don't look at the functions. Bodies aren't political."

With that said, that doesn't mean Bowden think there can't be a vegetarian power athlete. "It's possible to have a 5'6" NBA player, but it's probably going to be rare."

There also happens to be a vegan bodybuilder, Kenneth Williams.

In Fuhrman's mind, a vegetarian athlete isn't some exception to the rule. Americans have become so attached to the food pyramid and the benefits of meat that it's become nutritional gospel, but it is not scientific, he says. "Without vegetables there would be no protein on the planet," he notes, as that's how early animals got protein.

Conflicting dietary philosophies aside, Fuhrman points out a larger issue: Fielder can "be a role model for people to eat healthier." And in a nation where more people are shaped like ovals and where cheese is stuffed into every imaginable nook and cranny, Americans need dietary inspiration. Why shouldn't a 270-lb baseball-playing vegetarian lead them?

Some more dingers would help, though.

This might have something to do with it:

Cecil's financial woes came to light in 2004, during his divorce proceedings with Stacey. Each blamed the other for the family's financial ruin: Stacey pointed to Cecil's gambling; he cited her extravagant spending. Prince took Stacey's side, engaging in shouting matches with Cecil in the courtroom and over the phone. "Prince felt like he needed to protect his mother and become the man of the house, so we had some heated conversations," says Cecil. "Some bad things were said." Prince also accused his father of taking $200,000 of his signing bonus without permission. "My father is dead to me," he told The Detroit News in 2004.

It's a shame, too, because, as this old commercial shows, Pops and Prince used to be the best of pals. Alas.

Cecil Must Not Have Picked Up The Tab [The Fynal Cut]

Notes from a day in baseball:

• Goodbye Barry? As a commenter mentioned yesterday, chances are that Prince Fielder, shown above, is not thinking about the home run he just hit, but rather of a stack of delicious pancakes that await him at home plate. It must be what motivated him toward an inside-the-park home run on Sunday, and it could be speeding up his home run trot here. Hey, better syrup than horse steroids, we always say (it's true; we always say that). On a day that The day after Barry Bonds hit career homer No. 748, Fielder and rookie pitcher Yovani Gallardo stole the show as Milwaukee beat the Giants 5-4. Fielder hit his NL-leading 26th home run and Gallardo was strong through 6 1/3 innings as San Francisco dropped its fifth in a row. Oh, and Gallardo also had a double in his first major league at-bat. The Giants have lost 17 of 23 overall. Now the San Jose Mercury News is saying that Bonds may be traded before the July 31 trading deadline, which would look very strange. The only thing less attractive to many fans about him breaking Aaron's record as a Giant would be him breaking it as a Yankee.

• We're Pretty Sure That Gandalf Helped Somehow. Your Chone Figgins update just got a lot bigger and bolder. Figgins got six hits, count 'em, including a game-winning triple in the ninth, as the Angels beat the host Astros 10-9. He drove in three runs, matching Garret Anderson's 1996 franchise record for hits in a game.

• John Maine, The Slider And You. Back home in the friendly confines, where John Maine feels comfortable and Mr. Met knows where all the restrooms are located. The Twins could only muster four hits in 7 2/3 innings off of Maine, as New York beat visiting Minnesota 8-1. Home runs by Carlos Delgado and Ricky Ledee highlighted a 15-hit attack.

• McCann Do Attitude. Brian McCann homered and drove in four runs off of Curt Schilling to lead the Braves past the Red Sox 9-4. Schilling didn't strike out anyone, the first time that's happened since 1993. McCann was coming off a 3-for-22 road trip.