Cue up that old Clickhole headline. The most unlikable pitcher in Major League Baseball said something that made a lot of sense and we should all just acknowledge it.
No, you don’t have to change your overall opinion of Trevor Bauer. He enjoys being toxic. He wants to stir things up for the sake of stirring things up, while simultaneously pretending he’s fearlessly speaking some difficult truth. He’s a troll. He’s deeply unlikeable.
But when it comes to the idea that pitchers should retaliate against batters who celebrate home runs … well, he’s on the right side of it.
Our Mary Clarke brought to you the tale of Fernando Tatis Jr. going deep on Bauer last night and absolutely owning him afterward. The shenanigans continued through the game.
Afterword, Bauer …. was reasonable?
At this point if you’re hating on Bauer it’s just a matter of personal preference. Which is fine but we just can’t act like the guy you love to hate isn’t trying his best to clean up a portion of our game that many new fans have an issue with. pic.twitter.com/ADoBKQ89Aj
— Dallas Braden (@DALLASBRADEN209) April 25, 2021
Note about Mr. Braden’s note in the Tweet above: It’s OK if your “personal preference” tells you that you don’t like a person who has questioned whether humans contribute to climate change or where Barack Obama was born. That’s reasonable. Judging people by what they do and say is how it’s supposed to work, actually.
But Bauer does have a solid view on the events of last night. It starts around the :43 mark. Here’s the heart of it:
“I like it. I think that pitchers who have that done to them and react by throwing at people or you know getting upset and hitting people or whatever, I think it’s pretty soft. If you give up a homer, a guy should celebrate it. It’s hard to hit in the big leagues. I’m all for it and I think it’s important that the game moves in that direction and we stop throwing at people because they celebrated having some success on the field.”
Bauer went on to describe his back and forth with Eric Hosmer, wherein they traded “sword celebrations” after individual successes, and explained that he thinks that’s all part of competition and should be embraced.
And, well, yes.
Baseball’s stodgy adherence to some unspoken code definitely makes the game more difficult to relate to. Because as Bauer notes, it IS incredibly difficult. Of course players should celebrate. Makes it feel more human.
About this, Bauer has a point.
About many other things, he’s just talking to rile.
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