Brewers manager Ken Macha tired of ‘negativism’ and ‘poppycock’

Asked yesterday about Brewers owner Mark Attanasio giving him a vote of confidence following the team’s poor start, manager Ken Macha showed a rare bit of emotion while scolding reporters:

Sunday was an exceptional day and to have any negative questions in this meeting today is poppycock. Because we had a tough game on Friday, a game where we battled back on Saturday against a team that’s leading its division in the American League, at their ballpark, had a blown save, played extra innings and had everybody on the staff come in and volunteer to pitch innings, then come back and beat them Sunday.

That’s an incredible win. We should come home on a high and be positive and ready to turn this thing around. If we continue the negative thoughts and negativism, it’s not going to come around. All of the Brewers’ fans should be positive. I know my staff, myself, we’re positive. We have some things happening in our bullpen now. We’re going to try to correct the difficulties we’ve had. It should be a positive mood right now.

Macha then told the reporter who asked the question: “That was your last question of the day.” All the “negativism” comes from the Brewers having the league’s second-worst record and losing 11 of the past 13 games, so I’m amused by the notion that reporters shouldn’t ask “negative” questions about a 17-27 team just because they beat the Twins on Sunday after losing to them on both Friday and Saturday. Imagine that same logic being applied to reporters covering anything but sports. With that said, I do admire Macha for his use of “poppycock.”