No one likes to lose. It’s why little kids flip Monopoly boards and unscrupulous adults move game pieces around when people leave the room. The entire point of competing is winning and when your job is competing at the highest level possible in your field, you might start taking umbrage at minor and imaginary slights. Especially when your team is only winning 20% of their games. Oh, hey Salvador Perez.
As you’ve surely seen, heard, and/or read about by now, the benches cleared during Saturday’s White Sox game in Kansas City because Perez took umbrage to Tim Anderson being excited about hitting a leadoff homerun. Yes, you read that correctly. Salvador Perez, member of the 2014 & 2015 scraptastic celebration-addict Royals was mad about a player being happy. Here are the key quotes about it courtesy of editor emeritus James Fegan:
“He did it Opening Day, too,” Perez said. “The same thing. Said a bad word. He didn’t even play in a fucking playoff game. He doesn’t know about getting excited. You have to be in playoffs to get excited, win a World Series, to get excited. That’s a game. That’s a simple game. That’s the second time I said something to him. The first time I saw it I was on the DL. He do it again and I have the opportunity to say something to him again.”
“I’ve hit some homers, too,” Perez said. “I keep running the bases. I don’t get loud like you. That’s the only thing I tell him. Keep doing what you’re doing, bro. Have fun. It’s a game, you know, but respect my team. That’s it. He was mad about that.”
What.
Baseball will forever have some of the dumbest unwritten rules because traditions exist and the vast majority of them are pointless and ridiculous. But man, the hypocrisy of this coming from one of the key players in the Kansas City Royals Handjive Brigade is downright comical. The 2014 and 2015 Royals were maybe the most exuberant and demonstrative baseball team I can ever remember watching. They celebrated everything. Homerun? Trots and dugout dances. Hit a double? Elaborate hand gestures to the dugout. Eked out a single? Clap until your hands bleed. Strike someone out? Jaw at them the entire walk back to the dugout. And if the other team didn’t like it, you could always just get into a fight with them like the Royals did multiple times.
Anderson is happy again and it’s great to see. He’s rebounding nicely from last year’s awfulness and isn’t afraid to show his elation on the field. That’s going to rub some teams the wrong way and to an extent, I guess I get it. But if you spent multiple years defending Yordano Ventura’s attitude and antics, you absolutely forfeit all rights to tell players from other teams to calm down and play the game the right way.
Photo credit: Peter G Aiken
I put this crap squarely on Ned Yost. He’s cut from the same cheesecloth as Phil Garner. The game will be better when he’s gone and their 3rd base coach gets the job.