Senior Columnist
Attention baseball purists.
What you’re about to read may anger you. If it does, good. You need to hear this.
There is nothing wrong with bat flips. I read last week that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig decided to cut down on his use of the gesture, and I was a little heartbroken. A player of the game I love has decided to minimize an aspect of his personality in order to appease those who say he disrespects baseball.
Let’s talk about that word for a minute. Respect. Who and what should a man or woman respect?
Your peers, parents, the president, the flag and…a game. If a game meant to be played by children commands your respect, stop; take inventory of your life and re-establish your priorities.
Contrary to what you may believe about the world we live in, it is no longer the 1940s. Long gone are the days of Ruth and DiMaggio, Musial and the like. We live in the 21st century, and baseball is a completely different animal.
Like the game they play, the boys of summer have changed with the times. Players opt for streamlined uniforms and EVO-Shields over the baggy cotton pants and sweaters of old.
As for the fans, well, they haven’t seemed to change. A majority of baseball’s fans are older white men, clinging to the antiquated notion that every baseball player is supposed to be Ward Cleaver with a stick and a helmet.
Players come from all parts of the world now, some from prep schools and universities in the United States, others from impoverished villages in the Third World. To ask of every man who wears a Major League Baseball cap on a field of play to act the same is not only laughably impossible but childishly stubborn.
“But Nate,” you say, silently admiring my handsomely rigid jawline. “What about ‘class?’ I should be able to criticize a player if his actions don’t match up with my values, right?”
“Wrong,” I reply.
Lisa Doris Alexander quoted the New York Amsterdam News’ Marcus Henry in her book, When Baseball Isn’t White, Straight and Male: The Media and Difference in the National Pastime, “Rarely does anyone ever talk about Ty Cobb’s racist views. Nor do they emphasize Mickey Mantle’s problem with alcohol addiction or allegations that Bobby Cox is a wife-beater.”
All of those things are horrible. Yet, those three players are hailed as immortal beacons of baseball’s shining light of greatness.
So let’s go back to the topic at hand: flipping a bat in celebration of a home run. So what if a guy’s got some flare and enthusiasm? Other sports encourage that and are doing a lot better than baseball.
Evolve or die.
