Baseball's cultural collision works

Adrian Gonzalez hit two home runs Wednesday that helped the Dodgers beat the Cardinals, 6-4, and survive another game in the National League Championship Series. After the first of them, he celebrated by using his hands to flash "Mickey Mouse" ears toward his teammates as he neared the Dodgers' dugout. "Just having fun," a smiling Gonzalez explained to me after the game. He was having fun. All of us could tell that. But was it just about fun, as he said? I don't think so. As cartoon references go, this one was serious business: Gonzalez was publicly - if lightheartedly - asserting his team's right to play the game as it chooses. And I'm glad he did it. The backstory: After Game 3, Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright criticized Gonzalez for what he described as a "Mickey Mouse" gesture while celebrating an RBI double in the fourth inning. Wainwright also said - with a disapproving tone - that Gonzalez had been talking to him while leading off third base later in the inning. The Ca...