8th grader bat flip and dance

Haven't seen it, but hope baseball doesn't go way of football celebrations.  IMO only celebrations should be team when they win, like TX A&M over FL.  What's next dancing because you got on base? 

Actually, this is a discussion my husband and I are having. Our high school team is the Indians (the town is Indianola, don't know what else you'd be) One of the kids on the team started shooting off an imaginary arrow if he hits a double or more--never any other time.Some other kids are picking it up.

My husband finds it DEEPLY offensive, not because of the Indian thing, but because he hates that kind of thing. 

I say the kids are dorks and have to find appropriate ways to celebrate, they're just not there yet.

Thoughts? What is appropriate in baseball?

Don't throw bats, someone will get hurt.  On the other stuff, baseball is changing.  It's ok to celebrate.  To each his own as long as you don't hold the game up.  Or your celebration is during the play and affects the outcome.

If harmless celebrations both you, that's your deal.

Baseball is changing. Bautista's celebration was for a big hit in a big game. For an 8th grader to celebrate like the video is ridiculous. He hasn't earned the right. I went to high high school game today. I saw three kids pose, shoot arrows and/or flex after hitting doubles. It looks ridiculous for a double. For most of the season do your job and act like you've been here before. Save the celebrations for big moments.

My son's team did the "shooting the arrow" thing on anything better than a single....nothing flashy, just a quick one when the reached base.  I didn't have a problem with it....and we weren't even the Indians lol

RJM posted:

 Save the celebrations for big moments.

Agree!  Only time my son "celebrated" a hit was when he hit an RBI double with 2 outs in the 7th that tied the district championship game and sent it into extra innings.  He pumped his fist as he got to 2nd base.  It was probably the biggest and most memorable hit of his HS and college career.

RJM posted:

Baseball is changing. Bautista's celebration was for a big hit in a big game. For an 8th grader to celebrate like the video is ridiculous. He hasn't earned the right. I went to high high school game today. I saw three kids pose, shoot arrows and/or flex after hitting doubles. It looks ridiculous for a double. For most of the season do your job and act like you've been here before. Save the celebrations for big moments.

It's ok to have an opinion on how the game should be played, but how does what other people do bother you so much?  Why should you sit in judgement of how others play the game?  It's baseball, not RJMball.

There's a thing called "showing respect for the game." It's a team game. It's not a ME game. These antics are ME moves. Look at ME. It has nothing to do with me and my opinion. It has everything to do with "the game." Respecting the game means a lot more than my opinion.

One of the many, many, many, many reasons I quit watching the NFL years ago was the constant show of players exulting themselves after making a routine tackle, a catch, a first down run, etc.  Obviously, it does not bother others the way it bothers me.  So I don't complain, but I choose not to watch.  And these kids like the one in the video are just going to mimic what they see the pros do.  In other sports it has already trickled down as far as the pee-wee levels.  Baseball is not there.... yet.  Big moment celebrations and a bat flip after a majestic bomb - okay, cool.  But the day I start seeing fielders thumping their chests and pointing at the sky after making a nice play - I'm out.

playball2011 posted:

Haven't seen it, but hope baseball doesn't go way of football celebrations.  IMO only celebrations should be team when they win, like TX A&M over FL.  What's next dancing because you got on base? 

What's next is getting on base because you were dancing...

I don't think Bautista's celebration is anymore justified. Both show a lack of humility and a desire to show up the other team. The increase in that type of behavior among the "adults" is why you see it increase in the children/young adults.

I don't have any problem with kids flashing the doubles sigh, they have been doing it for years in college. it is not new at the high school level. bat flips are very marginal and you had damn well better be right...my son bat flipped one...I was not impressed. we talked about he hasn't done it again but HR's in HS don't come along that often in the dead game era we play in now days.

Ted22 posted:

I don't think Bautista's celebration is anymore justified. Both show a lack of humility and a desire to show up the other team. The increase in that type of behavior among the "adults" is why you see it increase in the children/young adults.

This I totally disagree with. Bautista was not only appropriate but awesome and the exact right time do it. IMO

old_school posted:

I don't have any problem with kids flashing the doubles sigh, they have been doing it for years in college.

Never saw it in the time my son played college ball.  They were too busy making sure to get to 2B.

FoxDad posted:

old_school posted:

I don't have any problem with kids flashing the doubles sigh, they have been doing it for years in college.

Never saw it in the time my son played college ball.  They were too busy making sure to get to 2B.

yea pretty apparent you don't get, they flash it after the play is over.

Ted22 posted:

I don't think Bautista's celebration is anymore justified. Both show a lack of humility and a desire to show up the other team. The increase in that type of behavior among the "adults" is why you see it increase in the children/young adults.

Texas demonstrated last week they agree with you regarding showing up the other team. Seeing Bautista get drilled and punched in the face is likely to make a player less likely to be so flamboyant next time.

i don't have an issue with a MLBer admiring a no doubt about it homer. A little bat flip, ok. Bautista's bat flip may have been excessive. But I believe it was emotional spontaneity. I don't mind emotional spontaneity. I don't like the in game premeditated celebrations.

Maybe, someday after a great defensive play on the third out the fielder will run up to the guy who hit the ball and spike it at his feet.

Maybe they need to incorporate replay into these situations - the umps can watch it 4-5 times and decide if it is a premeditated celebration or emotional spontaneity.  If the umps don't want to make that call, then the opposing manager can watch it 4-5 times and decide whether his pitcher needs to pluck some guy or not.

I am all for some excessive emotional spontaneity.  Telling a guy that just hit the ball out of the ballpark to stay calm is a shame.  A pitcher can throw a "good" pitch and still get it hit out, so the idea that the batter is "showing up" the pitcher is just a little overreach.  I don't want the batter to stare down the pitcher or anything like that, but you see more emotion on doubles and triples than you do home runs - not sure why that should be the case.

RJM posted:

There's a thing called "showing respect for the game." It's a team game. It's not a ME game. These antics are ME moves. Look at ME. It has nothing to do with me and my opinion. It has everything to do with "the game." Respecting the game means a lot more than my opinion.

I dunno.  IMP Baseball is the most ME game there is.  Novels have been written about the 1 on 1 battle between pitchers and hitters which is the very essence of the game. 

In basketball or football it is near impossible to score by one player without any help from teammates.  The most important position in basketball is the point guard who has the responsibility of setting up teammates to score.  Football has the QB that has to deliver the ball to teammates perfectly to score. 

Baseball has the homerun.  No help from anyone - just the man with the stick vs. the man with the ball.  If that is not the very definition of a me game I am not sure what is. 

Perhaps the most fabled moment in the game's history is Ruth's called shot.   Not only did he hit the homer but he screamed at the Cubs dugout all the way around the bases.  That was 85 years ago which was 15 years before the NBA and the NFL was a barnstorming sideshow.  By the way  - he flipped the bat some too.  Then there is the biggest hot dog of all time, Pete Rose who spent 25 years with his look at me fake hustle.  Do we really want to talk about the Black Sox who had so much respect for the game that they threw a World Series.  The most disgusting display of selfish ME based actions ever in sports history. 

I could go in but I will not, baseball has always had it's share of showboating, mouth running knuckle heads.  Please stop with the myths of the Field of Dreams.  Baseball players never had more "respect for the game" than their basketball or football counterparts.  They have always been boozing, rable rousing wild men all the way back to the 1800's.  In fact for most of baseball's history the players were not considered respectable people in society.  They were thugs in today's parlance.  It wasn't until after WWII and the advent of TV and big money that all sports figures transformed into living breathing people coming to your house that the myths began. 

I'm willing to bet more than 80-90% of MLBers say there is a professional way to act and carry yourself on the field. It has nothing to do with the 1800s. I'll side with those 80-90% of the players.

i don't have anything more to say on the subject. I'm not going to take on every comment someone posts in defense of immaturity and lack of professionalism. My original point is it's ridiculous an 8th grader did what he did and Max Preps makes him a national figure on their site.