"When Blake Griffin jumps 30 feet in the air and dunks, you want to watch him howl at the moon and strut up the court. When Serena Williams lunges and rips a cross-court winner you want to see her pump her fist and scream. Same for Tiger draining a 30-footer, Brandi Chastain drilling a World Cup penalty, Tom Brady diving for a 1-yard TD. We’re fine with outward displays in every other sport."
I'm not. I find humility much more entertaining than self-promotion or righteous anger or whatever that inspires these displays. I'm all about excitedly and exuberantly embracing, high-fiving, butt-slapping teammates. It is a team sport and the joy should be shared. The personal displays don't interest me. I love baseball and fun but dislike the bat flip.
This doesn't even cover how the benches cleared AFTER the bat flip, when Encarnacion was trying to calm the crowd down and stop them from throwing things, but Dyson thought he was showboating, and started jawing. Cops came out again! It was insane!!
This is a great write-up of the bat flip in the KBO, where it's a non issue. Strange because Korean culture is generally so much more conservative and reserved than the US, but with batflips (and maybe baseball + emotionality overall) it's the other way around...
I'm from Baltimore but I live in Dallas now. My wife and her family are fanatical Rangers fans. Her dad has two framed photographs in his house: one of Nolan Ryan celebrating a no-hitter and the other of Rougned Odor punching Joey Bats in his stupid face.
So thank you, Mr. Schur, for including the caveat of "Ranger fans" in people who hated the bat flip. The Rangers aren't my team (I'm an Orioles fan), but I'm a Rangers fan by association. And that bat flip makes my blood curdle. Not because it broke baseball's unwritten rules but because... ugh. After that inning, we just sat in silence. And it's not like my wife and her family were totally over the 2011 Series. Ranger fans are the new Sox fans. They lost in heartbreaking fashion, AGAIN, and everyone on the internet wrote a zillion words on why they weren't allowed to be mad.
Baseball sucks sometimes. Sometimes, it's better when your team just blows. Go O's.
It seems like if you have a framed photo of Nolan Ryan, and one of a guy getting punched, you might complete the troika with the famous photo of Ryan holding Ventura in a headlock, ready to apply some noogies. :)
The Three greatest things to watch in baseball are
Joey Bat Flip
Adrian Beltre's defence
Every time teammates touch Adrian Beltre's head and he freaks out
I swear I have watched all of these things equally over and over again
Love it when you two get together. I may even like it better in print with links to the bat flip.
Cannot believe you didn't make a Canadian reference to hockey celebrations.
Griffin may howl and strut up the court, Serena, Tiger, Brandi and Brady may pump their fists and scream, but when any NHLer scores a goal you get fist pump, scream and a mob scene from team mates jumping in and in some arenas a skate by the opposing bench to high five the entire team or with an OT game winner the entire team exits the bench to celebrate and rub it in the opposing teams face and don't forget to go back and collect the puck. But for some insane reason, "traditionalists", who are probably still angry about Jackie Robinson (I believe you two mentioned the difference in perception of a Joc Pederson playoff HR celebration and Yasiel Puig a couple years ago) can't handle a hands in the air bat flip and outpouring of emotion in a big baseball moment.
But do these people also abhor goal scoring, putt sinking fist pumps and fist bumps and touch down spikes and victorious screams? It seems most fans accept some kind of celebration in other sports moments but want our baseball players to all be the same reserved head down kind of guy. Let every player be themselves and let it all out. As a fan I love seeing it. Maybe if you're batflipping on the losing end of a blowout loss it is out of place, but Bautista's was a big stage, big game altering home run
I don't like personal ostentatious celebratory displays in any sport, although it's more understandable in tennis or golf where there isn't anyone to celebrate with. I hate it in hockey when a player scores a big goal and his teammates come over to hug him and he skates away from them to do his own special move. I enjoy the hugging and mobbing and high-fiving by teammates. I don't enjoy the "look at me!" demonstrations. Bat flips fall into that category.
There's a big difference between fist pumps/bumps and bat flips. It has to do with the message you're sending. The first express joy and no one has a problem with them. The second expresses "fuck you", at least as done by, say, Tim Anderson, and it's bad sportsmanship.
Fans do have a problem with a lot of things football players do, and some thing NBA players do, so it's not just baseball. This isn't really new, either... I know some baseball players way back in 1908 and earlier were doing jackass things that pissed people off and got the pitcher to throw at them.
Great piece, Joe and Mike. That said...
"When Blake Griffin jumps 30 feet in the air and dunks, you want to watch him howl at the moon and strut up the court. When Serena Williams lunges and rips a cross-court winner you want to see her pump her fist and scream. Same for Tiger draining a 30-footer, Brandi Chastain drilling a World Cup penalty, Tom Brady diving for a 1-yard TD. We’re fine with outward displays in every other sport."
I'm not. I find humility much more entertaining than self-promotion or righteous anger or whatever that inspires these displays. I'm all about excitedly and exuberantly embracing, high-fiving, butt-slapping teammates. It is a team sport and the joy should be shared. The personal displays don't interest me. I love baseball and fun but dislike the bat flip.
This doesn't even cover how the benches cleared AFTER the bat flip, when Encarnacion was trying to calm the crowd down and stop them from throwing things, but Dyson thought he was showboating, and started jawing. Cops came out again! It was insane!!
Love me some bat flips!
This is a great write-up of the bat flip in the KBO, where it's a non issue. Strange because Korean culture is generally so much more conservative and reserved than the US, but with batflips (and maybe baseball + emotionality overall) it's the other way around...
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/17668845/korean-bat-flip
I'm from Baltimore but I live in Dallas now. My wife and her family are fanatical Rangers fans. Her dad has two framed photographs in his house: one of Nolan Ryan celebrating a no-hitter and the other of Rougned Odor punching Joey Bats in his stupid face.
So thank you, Mr. Schur, for including the caveat of "Ranger fans" in people who hated the bat flip. The Rangers aren't my team (I'm an Orioles fan), but I'm a Rangers fan by association. And that bat flip makes my blood curdle. Not because it broke baseball's unwritten rules but because... ugh. After that inning, we just sat in silence. And it's not like my wife and her family were totally over the 2011 Series. Ranger fans are the new Sox fans. They lost in heartbreaking fashion, AGAIN, and everyone on the internet wrote a zillion words on why they weren't allowed to be mad.
Baseball sucks sometimes. Sometimes, it's better when your team just blows. Go O's.
It seems like if you have a framed photo of Nolan Ryan, and one of a guy getting punched, you might complete the troika with the famous photo of Ryan holding Ventura in a headlock, ready to apply some noogies. :)
The Three greatest things to watch in baseball are
Joey Bat Flip
Adrian Beltre's defence
Every time teammates touch Adrian Beltre's head and he freaks out
I swear I have watched all of these things equally over and over again
Love it when you two get together. I may even like it better in print with links to the bat flip.
Cannot believe you didn't make a Canadian reference to hockey celebrations.
Griffin may howl and strut up the court, Serena, Tiger, Brandi and Brady may pump their fists and scream, but when any NHLer scores a goal you get fist pump, scream and a mob scene from team mates jumping in and in some arenas a skate by the opposing bench to high five the entire team or with an OT game winner the entire team exits the bench to celebrate and rub it in the opposing teams face and don't forget to go back and collect the puck. But for some insane reason, "traditionalists", who are probably still angry about Jackie Robinson (I believe you two mentioned the difference in perception of a Joc Pederson playoff HR celebration and Yasiel Puig a couple years ago) can't handle a hands in the air bat flip and outpouring of emotion in a big baseball moment.
This too is one of my all-time favourites
I like a good bat flip as much as the next guy. I do not think people that don’t like them are racists
Lots of people besides traditionalists would rather not see jackass bat flips.
But do these people also abhor goal scoring, putt sinking fist pumps and fist bumps and touch down spikes and victorious screams? It seems most fans accept some kind of celebration in other sports moments but want our baseball players to all be the same reserved head down kind of guy. Let every player be themselves and let it all out. As a fan I love seeing it. Maybe if you're batflipping on the losing end of a blowout loss it is out of place, but Bautista's was a big stage, big game altering home run
I don't like personal ostentatious celebratory displays in any sport, although it's more understandable in tennis or golf where there isn't anyone to celebrate with. I hate it in hockey when a player scores a big goal and his teammates come over to hug him and he skates away from them to do his own special move. I enjoy the hugging and mobbing and high-fiving by teammates. I don't enjoy the "look at me!" demonstrations. Bat flips fall into that category.
I'll add that I wasn't bothered by Bautista's bat flip after that big home run. But I can sympathize with those who were.
There's a big difference between fist pumps/bumps and bat flips. It has to do with the message you're sending. The first express joy and no one has a problem with them. The second expresses "fuck you", at least as done by, say, Tim Anderson, and it's bad sportsmanship.
Fans do have a problem with a lot of things football players do, and some thing NBA players do, so it's not just baseball. This isn't really new, either... I know some baseball players way back in 1908 and earlier were doing jackass things that pissed people off and got the pitcher to throw at them.