Touchdown celebrations are allowed in football.
Goals in hockey? Raise your stick, pump your fist, let out a yell and hug your teammates.
A slam dunk or a 3-point play in basketball gets everyone fired up, right?
However, in baseball, if a batter hits a home run, he is to drop his bat quietly, lower his head and solemnly round the bases -- quickly. Otherwise, he might hurt the tender sensitivities of the pitcher who just gave up the hit.
That's the message the Kansas City Royals sent White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson on Wednesday. Anderson hit a mammoth two-run homer off Kansas City starter Brad Keller in the fourth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field. After making contact, Anderson tossed his bat javelin-style back toward his own dugout and appeared to exhort his teammates, as if to say, "Let's go!"
Now, now, now, Timmy, that show of emotion is not acceptable in this stodgy, ole game of baseball.
Keller -- who is probably the best pitcher on the butthurt, last-place Royals, which isn't saying much -- drilled Anderson in ass in the sixth inning as punishment. Not satisfied, Royals players and coaches came on the field and started chirping at Anderson for his transgression as he slowly made his way down the first-base line. Of course, benches and bullpens emptied. Anderson and Keller both were ejected.
I don't know what Kansas City pitching Cal Eldred is thinking about. His team has one of the highest bullpen ERAs in the league. Perhaps he should be more concerned about that than teaching Anderson a lesson, but yelling at a player on the opposing team for hitting a home run off one of his pitchers seemed to be a high priority today.
Look, I'm not a real fan of the celebration of mundane things. And celebrating a home run in the fourth inning of an April game between two bad teams is not real high on my to-do list.
But, I'm also not going to go into "old man yells at cloud" mode either. A new generation is coming into the game, one that doesn't mind celebrating hits in the fourth inning, and one that doesn't mind charging onto the field as if they've won the World Series after a ninth-inning victory. Times have changed, and I'm OK with that.
More over, all 30 teams in baseball "pimp" home runs now, so in my mind, any team that gets pissed off about another team celebrating a home run is living in a glass house.
Get over yourselves, Royals. If you don't want Anderson to celebrate, get him out next time.
Does anyone else wonder whether these bizarre "unwritten rules" are among the reasons some young people today find baseball boring?
You know, baseball is a game. It's OK if the people playing it have some fun.
If Keller strikes Anderson out in that situation, I wouldn't have minded it if he had pumped his fist for pitching out of a jam. So, why should anyone mind if Anderson flipped his bat when he had success?
It's time to lighten up.
For the record, the Royals won, 4-3, in 10 innings, but the Sox took two of three in the series. So, the Sox (7-10) are in fourth place and the Royals (6-12) are in last. That's probably where these two teams will stay all season.
Sore loser.
ReplyDeleteFun cuts both ways. Part of the fun is finding the emotional weakling on the team and get him to lose his cool.
Experienced ball players realize this stuff goes on in every game. Pierzynski was a master at it. Find the player that can't handle his emotions and try to get under his skin. Once you do, he'll start to destruct and hurt his team. Sometimes that takes a couple days, and baseball is set up for that.
They Royals have been jawing at Tim Anderson every game so far. That bat flip didn't make the Royals mad, it made them confident. They knew at that moment they got under his skin and started to twist the knife. Sure enough, he booted his next play and they got those two runs right back.
"A new generation is coming into the game"
Yes, just like every year. For the last 150 years. There is nothing new under the sun.
That's why experienced players don't like the bat flips. It's not because it "shows them up", it's because it exposes you as someone who can't control his emotions. And if you can't control yourself, this game will bite you back. Quickly. So you have the know the difference between exuberance and arrogance. Anderson crossed that line yesterday, and the game bit him back. Quickly.
Don't you think you're giving the 6-12 Royals a little too much credit? They found the emotional weakling on the team? Nah, they just got lucky the Sox stink and can't hit with runners in scoring position. So they took one out of three in an April series. Whoop dee doo.
ReplyDeleteAnderson is hitting .435. The Sox have many weaker players than him this season.