Bat Flips: Old Schoolers must hate this stuff

If me or someone on my team hit the homerun there is nothing wrong with it and is just having fun.

If me or someone on my team gives up the homerun then it's classless and bush league. Anybody who does it is a disgrace to the game.

Seriously as someone pointed out if the pitchers are going to act stupid on the mound then the batters should be able to as well.  Isn't it Fernado Rodney who shoots bows and arrows into the sky?  I'm waiting on a batter to mash one like Bautista or Schwarber then treat their bat as if it was a sword and put his bat into their scabbard.  The way Chi Chi Rodriguez used to do when playing golf.

The bat flip is just another step in the evolution of the celebration. Reggie, Lawless (see video link above), Manny, Joey Bats, etc., etc. 

Yeah, and CHI CHI!!!

Nothing wrong with a little swashbuckling a la Chi Chi.  But golf is an individual sport.  Nobody failed when I make a birdie. 

With a home run, the pitcher failed.  So you are showing him up.  A little bit is ok - par for the course.  The real question with the bat flip is where does it stop.  What starts out as a simple bat flip starts to become a choreographed skit.  Remember the old days of the NFL.  It started with spiking the foot ball and maybe a fist pump for a sack.  Then it became the Gastineau sack dance or the Ickey shuffle. 

If a pitcher strikes a batter out in a big situation after a tough AB,  I would take no exception to the pitcher giving off a little roar or fist pump or whatever.   Similarly I have no objection to bat flips.  

As long as each player stays in his own space and doesn't encroach upon or gesture toward the other player, it's all good as far as I am concerned.   I would take exception to "in your face" sort of behavior.  that seems unsporting to me. 

As far as "not showing up" the other player, I have never gotten that.   If you give up the dinger, the hitter has already shown you up.   There's no place to run and hide so that people don't notice.   Same thing if the pitcher K's the batter.   Batter is already shown up.

You might respond that the K or the dinger speaks for itself and needs no further elaboration.   But the exclamation point added by the gestures shows that it's human beings who are psychologically and emotionally invested in the outcome and not robots that are playing the game.  

As long as it's kept within reasonable compass,  I'm all for it. 

Like many others, I'm not a fan of showboating. No matter what happened in the game up until that point, I now have a little negative impression of Batista that will stick with me. 

I'm always drawn to the player who simply goes to work, does his best and when he makes a great hit or play doesn't celebrate it with anything more than a humble smile. 

Your reference to Reggie reminded me of a story about him. In his last year, at age 41, he played a final season with Oakland. During spring training, Tony LaRussa, the manager of Oakland, asked Reggie to talk to the team about how he approached situations when there were runners in scoring position. Reggie stood up in front of the team and said "First of all, the way I look at it, every time I come to the plate there's a runner in scoring position, even if no one is on base!" 

What about this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agkJ5WFNL4k

Awesome.  That's totally Domingo. 

MLB should embrace Bautista's bat flip

http://www.bostonherald.com/sp...e_bautistas_bat_flip

For a little perspective the writer is 60. He's covered baseball forever.

im a pitcher and i think its fine. im very much against throwing at people also. i dont care how much a guy shows you up, IMO its never right to put someone in a position where they could get seriously injured

I know im late to this party but I hated the bat flip.  And I think he did look at the pitcher.  If you want to emote, emote like Kirk Gibson did on his dinger off Eckersley.  This may have been mentioned already so forgive me if it has.  Just my 2 cents.

I wonder what Bob Gibson woulda thought?!  

No wondering needed.

I thought it was awesome and good for the game.  Look at how much pub that particular flip has given baseball.  

Well, there is that, Ryno....I hadn't thought of it that way.

From the NY Times article the OP shared:

"To some, the maneuver symbolizes a break from the gentlemanly principles that have supposedly steered the game across generations."

This is the view I've never understood. Baseball has glorified and celebrated ungentlemanly behavior for generations. Guys like Ty Cobb, Pete Rose and Bob Gibson were gentlemen?

Please.

What did Bob Gibson think?

"Man, I wish they would leave me out of this crap.  They bring my name up every time there is some little issue in baseball now a days.  Why don't they drag Nolan into this?  Seaver gets left alone.  I knew I should have bought a wine orchard out in California. Why can't they just leave me alone?" 

I think that if you polled professional pitchers, they would tell you that they hated it. And yes, if there was another game between them, they would send a message. I am not a fan of bat flipping or fist pumping. I also lost a little respect for someone I didnt care for in the first place. Showing emotion is OK, sticking it in the other teams face just doesn't do it for me.

Gibson was a Cardinal, he was the designated head hunter, last person with that job as a Cardinal  was Chris Capenter.  

 That's funny.

I don't mind a bat flip, in the moment, when the moment is deserving.  Ditto for the pitcher with the fist pump after getting a big K in a big moment.

The problem I have is that once this showboating gets 200 replays in an ESPN news cycle, every 331 homer just inside the foul pole will become "bat flip worthy" in the eyes of the flipper.  Much like the celebration of the tackler after EVERY tackle made in college and the NFL.  Ditto for the receiver who tosses his phantom pass interference yellow flag after every missed catch.  It just gets to the point of silliness which in turn makes every bat flip nauseating.

If the players keep the showboating to the appropriate times and events, then it's fine by me.