For some reason a lot of baseball people hate the bat flip. Who are these people? Pitchers? Geezers? To them the bat flip is “cocky”, it’s “show-y”, it’s “unsportsman-like”.
Pssshaaaw! The bat flip is awesome and it’s time we give it some love.
See that . . . that’s my boy Joey Bats-flip celebrating one of his classic monster dingers with an indelible bat flip that doesn’t care who it pisses off. I love this guy and his bat flips.
Remember when . . .
A few years ago Bautista was a free agent and there was talk of him considering Baltimore? O’s GM at the time Dan Duquette put the kibash on that idea before it even had a chance to take off, saying something like, “Our fans don’t really like him.”
I can’t speak for all the Orioles fans everywhere, but from my Orioles’ lovin’ ass’s perspecitve, damn, bruh!, I’d take that talent on my team anytime I can get it. I mean, I just want to watch the games. Even if he is an asshole, which Jose Bautista most certainly is not since he followed me on Twitter (no BS, he really did!), I don’t care as long as I can watch that incredible bat flip every time he pokes one into the center field ivy at OPACY. I don’t have to sit in the dugout with the guy, or next to him on the team plane to Seattle. I would feel bad for the guy who does have to put up with an asshole as a teammate, but if the asshole can play I wouldn’t feel too bad.
Remember when . . .
In basketball the slam dunk became a thing and the geezers back then didn’t like that either? Yeah, I don’t remember it either, so I read about it some. It was kinda the same argument, then about the dunk as we see in baseball now about the bat flip, right? It’s show-y, it’s in-your-face, it’s unsportsman-like to be so dramatic with your dominance of the other side.
But hasn’t the slam dunk given basketball one of its biggest ways to engage fans and really drive up the energy in the arena? And, now forgive me if I’m wrong here, doesn’t baseball have a long-standing issue with fan engagement and low energy in the stands?
Maybe the leadership at MLB should take a page from the NBA’s history and kinda not discourage the bat flip without explicitly encouraging it. Besides . . .
Pitchers Get to Show Off!
Pitchers get to be cocky all the time. The fist pumps after a nifty called third strike, or the screams when he gets out of a jam to end the inning are not looked at as over-doing it. It’s easy to be a bad ass when you’re on that little hill. Why in baseball heaven is the bat flip so rude?
And I’m not saying pitchers shouldn’t show their enthusiasm when they dominate a hitter. Not at all. Quite the opposite! Pitching is not easy. It’s one of the hardest things to be successful at in sports, maybe in life. Be excited, be enthusiastic! You’re awesome! You just struck out a major league hitter and you should damn well feel good about that!
Just don’t start boo-hoo-hooing when the hitter gets the better of you.
Hitting isn’t easy either. Hitting a pitch from the likes of John Lester is very, very hard. Hitting a pitch from Lester or Yu Darvish or Shane Bieber with any kind of pop is damned near impossible. Even if the hitter guesses right on the pitch he’s about to see and times it well, those guys are so good at keeping their pitches from being hit that when it happens it’s stunning.
So when a hitter manages to bring all of those elements together all at one time, especially in a big moment in a big game, and absolutely crushes one? HELL YEAH he should flip that bat!
Get some, Brother!
Want some more takes? Follow Joe Harman on Twitter (@JoeHarman14).
