Braves Legends Reflect on Beaning Jose Canseco to Defend Walt Weiss

Sometimes, the best lore in baseball doesn't come from postseason moments or other major events. It comes from random regular-season insanity. It's even better when some lore arises surrounding new Atlanta Braves manager Walt Weiss.

It's July 18, 2000, and the Braves are in St. Petersburg, Fla., taking on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field. The Braves lead 8-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth. Weiss had been beaned twice in the game, and his teammate, Greg Maddux, and his manager Bobby Cox, were ready to avenge him.

"Walt was pretty pissed, and I go, You want me to do anything?" Maddux said. "He said, Ya. It's just sticking up for your teammate."

It's the American League, which hasn't had pitchers bat in nearly 25 years at this point. They can't just beat the pitchers back.

"Bobby comes waddling down the bench, and you can tell he's pissed," Chipper Jones said in a video with Rob Friedman, the Pitching Ninja.

He went to Maddux and told him to hit the first "m----------r" due up to hit in the next inning. Maddux was all for it. He checks with Jones, who is sitting next to him, to see who is leading off the inning. It's none other than Jose Canseco. Maddux was ready for it.

"It was nothing about Jose Canseco," Maddux said. "He was just up at the moment of the game that dictated when somebody was gonna get hit."

At that point, it was all about showing respect for your teammate. In Maddux's eyes, Weiss had been playing hard for the team at shortstop all season. When you're ready to back a teammate, you're going to do it.

They prepared an emergency plan for if the steroid-using slugger charged the mound. He told Maddux to run toward second and he would come in and sweep Canseco's legs.

"Once we get him off his feet, it's over," Jones said.

They knew they had big dudes who could take them on. Even Walt Weiss was considered a tough guy. Jones claimed in the video that Weiss could tie someone up like a pretzel in 20 seconds. They were ready, and they were clearly confident.

Come the bottom of the ninth, Canseco gets in the box. First pitch, misses. Next pitch, got him. Canseco knows what's happening immediately and starts staring Maddux down. He began chipping at the mound, but then second-year umpire Laz Diaz guided him down the first-base line.

The Devil Rays bench still poured out onto the field around their beaned slugger. The Braves dugout clears out in response. Bobby Bonilla came out ready to fight, and he had to be calmed down. Devil Rays umpired began fighting with Diaz and got thrown out of the game. Not long after, the teams began returning to their corners.

"Jose's a pro; he undertands the game," Maddux said. "It's one of those situations where if he needs to charge the pitcher that hit Walt twice."

MLB.com's Mark Bowman chimed in after this was posted on Friday and added that he talked with Weiss about it recently. Having also played for the A's, Weiss and Canseco also go back a bit. Has the slugger approached Maddux, Maddux told him, “Walt told me to do it.”

If you're laughing at this point, you have every right to be doing so.

That respect they had for Weiss has lasted to this very day. Jones was excited to see him land the manager position in November after Brian Snitker retired a month earlier. When he got hired, all Jones had to tweet was "Boom! Love this dude."

So, for those too young to remember, including the writer of this piece, these stories go a long way to show the lore building behind what leads to certain moments in the modern day. Weiss might be seen as a continuation of Snitker to some, but he's someone with a longstanding connection with this team and with the respect of some legends to others.

The players were willing to rally around him then. The current players seem to be ready to rally around him now. That certainly means something.

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