Nine-year-old Oscar Wood – affectionately known by Jays fans, and now even his own father, as Mini Bautista – was filmed swinging a phantom bat while donning his painted Bautista-esque beard at the precise moment the real Blue Jay launched a game-changing homer.
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Toronto Blue Jays Jose Bautista flips his bat after hitting a three-run home run against the Texas Rangers during the seventh inning in Game 5 of baseball’s American League Division Series, Wednesday, October 14, 2015 in Toronto.
Dyson, who surrendered the homer, accused Bautista of disrespecting the game.
Choo did, however, tilt his bat and his hands back over the plate just as Martin lobbed the ball back to Sanchez. The other three home runs added to a sensational season that saw Delgado mash over 40 homers and compile a club record 145 RBI.
Scoot Mason says he just wanted to be a part of Blue Jays pandemonium. Somehow, it turned into a problem for Texas.
The suddenly common practice of bat flipping is viewed as an absence of deference to those who played the game before them. Not Wednesday, he wasn’t. “Next play, another error”. It’s about as legendary as you can get for a divisional round game. And then the next play, another miscue. Bautista hit two home runs in the first Yankee game and had two hits in the second. “I’ll be very cautious with it”, Schwarber said.
Let me know when the bat lands.
One hopes that the reason people still react angrily to something like a bat flip isn’t simply a bitterness that so many Latin American players are succeeding at the highest levels of baseball, speaking Spanish in clubhouses, playing music that does not involve banjos and, most significantly, pumping fists, tossing their weapons aside and not worrying about whether there is a right way to celebrate. I feel like I let down my team, my city.
Thursday morning, 1984 National League Cy Young Award victor Rick Sutcliffe, a current ESPN analyst, explained on ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike” that players do not police themselves the way they used to, which leads to a wider acceptance of histrionics such as bat flips.
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Bautista’s epic blast has sparked a debate amongst fans, though.
