Will Ferrell responds to criticism from John Madden over spring training stunt

If you were keeping score at home back on March 12, you can probably rattle off the exact order of events and appearances made by actor Will Ferrell during his five-stadium Cactus League tour. In one day, Ferrell achieved his goal of playing 10 different positions for 10 major league teams, and in the process raised an estimated $1 million for Cancer for College and Stand Up to Cancer.  

The stunt was created for the right reasons. It didn’t interfere with any meaningful games or take away opportunities from upcoming players. And overall, it made for a unique baseball experience and a fun break from the usually mundane routines of spring training. It was pretty much impossible to find a reason to hate the idea or its execution, even if you might be growing tired of Ferrell’s comedic stylings.

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Unless, of course, you’re Hall of Fame football coach and retired television analyst John Madden. Then you hated it. 

“I hate it,” Madden told KCBS 740 in San Francisco. “That’s a lack of respect, that’s a lack of respect for the game, I think, and a respect for what players have to do to get where they are.”

Bah, humbug!

Those comments were actually made the day of the event, so they’ve been out there for a couple weeks. But it wasn’t until Ferrell’s appearance on “Conan” on Friday night that we finally got a response.  

“First of all, he’s right. Look at me. I’m all about lack of respect. I don’t think the interviewer told him it was all for charity, number one, but I do love that in his mind he just thought I was just like ‘Major League Baseball, I want to play in 10 different games for 10 different teams. I want to do it Thursday! Because I’m a big shot, and make it happen now!’ Like I’m Veruca Salt. So he’s like ‘this Will Ferrell thinks he can just insert himself into big league games.”

As Ferrell indicates, Madden probably hated it because he just didn’t get it. Nobody bothered explaining what the mission was, so he’d just assumed Ferrell and Major League Baseball were conspiring to sell out the game in order to promote a movie or an HBO special or whatever else Ferrell had going on.  

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Honestly, it’s quite a reach to find that conclusion even without all the facts, but if Ferrell’s giving Madden the benefit of the doubt we should too. 

By the way, just so there’s no confusion here, Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon absolutely loved the idea. Otherwise, how could we explain this?

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813