Jose Bautista wasn’t flipping anybody off when he flipped his bat, but some folks sure are flipping out.
In case you missed it, the Blue Jays’ right fielder blasted a two-out, three-run homer in against the Rangers Wednesday to in 22 years.
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Actually, it wasn’t really a bat flip. It was more like a standing bat chuck. The Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez … now there’s a guy who knows how to flip a bat.
Baseball etiquette suggests it’s not nice to show up a pitcher after hitting a home run, and chances are Rangers pitchers will be hunting for “” the next time they face him.
“Jose needs to calm that down, just kind of respect the game a little more,” Rangers reliever Sam Dyson told reporters after the game. It was Dyson who surrendered the homer and then had words with Edwin Encarnacion after the at-bat, clearing both benches.
“(Jose) is a huge role model for the younger generation that’s coming up playing this game, and I mean he’s doing stuff that kids do in Wiffle ball games and backyard baseball. It shouldn’t be done,” Dyson continued.
Case in point: Watch this 4-year-old’s epic bat flip that made the rounds on the Internet recently:
Rangers starting pitcher Cole Hamels backed up his reliever.
“It’s hard to be politically correct. It’s tough to see,” Hamels said. “A lot of us on our team don’t carry ourselves that way.”
Bautista wasn’t sure what all of the fuss was about.
“I can’t really remember what was going through my mind, to be quite honest with you,” Bautista told reporters. “After I made contact, I just, I didn’t plan anything that I did. So I still don’t even know how I did it. I just enjoyed the moment, ran around the bases, got to the dugout, and after all the guys stopped punching me and hitting me is when I started realizing what had happened.
“I knew I did something great for the team at the moment of impact because I knew I hit that ball pretty good. And I gave us the lead in a crucial moment, so I was happy to do that.”
So, where do you stand on the great bat flip? I don’t mean to flip-flop on the issue, but given the drama and importance of the moment, I’m not going to criticize Bautista. However, if he does something that outrageous in a regular-season game, he should be prepared to face the chin music.
Here are a handful of bat flips from across the Internet:
Tags: ALDS, bat flip, Cole Hamels, Joey Bats, Jose Bautista, Sam Dyson, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays
