By Glen and Nate, AngelsWin.com Staff Writers -
Welcome to the first edition of the 2015 PCP. It’s been an exciting start to October baseball. The Cubs are inching closer to their BTTF density, and the Rangers got eliminated again in gut-wrenching fashion. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, and before. I know it’s childish to take pleasure in the Rangers choking, particularly after they had a better season than the Angels. I’m OK with that. It never gets old seeing the Rangers fold. They’ve replaced the Yankees as the team for Angels’ fans to hate.
The moment you know the Rangers were going to choke for sure was when Joey Bautista hit a monster HR and did the bat flip that salted thousands of Rangers’ fans wounds. Here it is, if you missed it:
There’s a lot of debate about that flip, and if there’s one thing we love here at PCP headquarters it’s adding our voices to an overwhelming chorus of people who are certain their opinion matters. Here’s what we think about the flip.
I Love It – Glen
The question one has to ask about this bat flip is if you would be OK with it if Bautista did it when he was playing against the team you root for. To that I say: yes, but I wouldn’t be saying I love it. My love for it has to do with it happening against the Rangers. The only way it would be better was if it happened when the Jays were playing the Dodgers in game seven of the World Series at Chavez Latrine. Humor me; I know the AL has home-field advantage this year. It’s my fantasy, leave it alone.
If it had happened against the Angels I’d still say there was nothing wrong with it. I’m in the camp that says if you don’t want to see a bat flip, don’t give up a home run. If you do, be prepared to deal with it. It’s a consequence, and I wouldn’t be calling for any sort of retribution.
…unless, perhaps, the Angels were playing Texas and it was Hamilton or Napoli doing the bat flip. Man, that makes it a different issue. I have to dig deep to see if I’d still feel the same about it, and the answer is no. I wouldn’t feel the same. However, my feelings would be anger and disgust and general loathing of Hamilton or Napoli. I would be pissed that they did it against us and I would curse them out for hitting the HR, but I’d still be OK with the salt in the wound. If we didn’t want it to happen…well, you know.
Hate It – Nate
Such a lack of sportsmanship and bravado has no place in baseball! This is a game that was started by some old fashioned white guys that pitched 22 innings a night and had names like ‘The Kentucky Colonel’ and ‘Lippy, the Lip.’ They would be turning over in their graves if they saw some showoff hit a home run and throw his bat off like a hoodlum…
Ah, what the hell, I loved it! That has to be one of the most exciting moments in baseball in years. For one thing, the inning was already full of tension and craziness, Toronto just gave up the lead at home and had their best hitter at the plate ready to take the lead back and he did just that. In dramatic fashion, first with the no doubter, then admiring it, and then throwing his bat like a bad ass. If you close your eyes and just listen to the clip you can just hear the rush of excitement in the stadium. The bat flip was the perfect exclamation mark in my opinion. It also really doesn’t hurt that it came against the Rangers and essentially ended their playoff run.
I can totally see how bat flips can sometimes be frowned upon. If you are up ten runs and just hit a bomb, don’t throw your bat, don’t admire your home run, just trot around the bases. Or if your name is Yasiel (pronounced ‘yes I am’) Puig (pronounced ‘a douche’) and you bat flip a double off the right field wall… bad idea. That is a douche move and you probably play for the Dodgers. The old timers would throw a baseball at your face for this and you would totally deserve it.
Since I am not a liar like Glen I have to say that if this happened to the Angels I would be pretty ticked off. I get the outrage from the Rangers fans, but they are wrong. This wasn’t an in your face bat flip, it was a “hell yes!” bat flip.
Go Blue Jays! I hope they manage to meet the Cubs in the WS. I couldn’t imagine a more exciting matchup.
