By Drew Hreha
I get it.
It’s 2019. The hip, new, popular thing
to do is to get offended at anything and everything.
Clearly, This new era of softness has made its
way to the sports world. In football, laying a quarterback on the ground will
cost a defender 15 yards. In the NBA, if you blow on a point guard in transition,
its a foul. But baseball was different. Or at least, it was.
Lately, a topic of discussion in MLB has been
over how hitters admire long home runs. What’s appropriate? What’s not? Just
this week, Madison Bumgarner was upset at Max Muncy for “pimping” his home run
off Bumgarner than landed in the San Francisco Bay. When Bumgarner told Muncy
to “run” after hitting his home run, Muncy invited Bumgarner to retrieve the
ball from McCovey Cove in order to keep him from celebrating.
I’m 100% on Muncy’s side in this situation. If a
pitcher doesn’t want to watch a player celebrate, he probably shouldn’t let him
launch one of his pitches 400+ feet. It’s a game. Games are supposed to be fun.
Whether you like it or not, bat flips, slow trots and stare downs are fun. The
same thing goes for pitchers like Marcus Stroman and Chris Archer. Watching
pitchers throw with passion is fun. This includes expressions such as fist
pumps, twirls and sprinting off the mound.
I wish the only advice needed for the offended
here was to “stop them.” Clearly, that’s not the case, so here’s another piece
of advice; Open your eyes. Fans love this stuff. Instead of adding weird and
obscure rules to make games 10 seconds shorter, how about we embrace the part
of the game that young viewers enjoy? Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox has
become a national star because he plays with personality. Just check twitter.
If you look at the videos going viral, from the baseball world, they are
usually bat flips.
This is unique to baseball. In no other moment
in sport is there so much focus on one person— and so much adrenaline within
that person— than after a home run. That’s what makes bat flips so captivating.
The most recent show of soft in Major League
Baseball occurred Monday night. In the first inning of the Pirates’ series opener
against the Braves, Joe Musgrove threw an inside fastball to Josh Donaldson. Donaldson
took offense (which in itself was ridiculously soft; the pitch didn't even hit
you dude) and proceeded to ask, with profanity, what Musgrove was looking at.
Musgrove answered with the same question to Donaldson, resulting in benches
clearing.
No punches thrown. No blood. First inning. Both
Donaldson and Musgrove were ejected from the game. There’s no reason either of
these men should have been removed from the game. The only thing remotely
punishable Donaldson did was shove catcher Elias Diaz. Still, that is no
grounds for ejection.
And what did Musgrove do? He threw an inside
pitch, answered a man’s question to him and was removed from the game. This was
not only a complete Ump Show, but also an indictment of the current state of baseball.
How soft has the game gotten? So soft that we
are ejecting people for being angry? Will fans be removed from games for
heckling soon? Seriously. Where does this stop?
The problem remains that people will be offended
by anything in this society and find an excuse to back up their fragility.
Instead of encouraging softness, Major League Baseball its community need to
present a united front. The umpires from Monday’s game need suspended. At the
very least. Fans need to continue to retweet videos of bat flips and trash
talks. Most importantly, baseball needs to look at the constant complainers and
tell them to suck it up.
Life’s tough. Wear a helmet.
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