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Sunday, April 16, 2017

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge (Day 16)

Day 16: A card of a player whom you appreciate but don't like
I hate bat flips. I get the passion, but this peacocking attitude pisses me off. Don't dance in the end zone in football. Don't flip your bat when you hit a home run.

Jose Bautista has over 300 home runs over 14 years, and he comes through in the clutch. But I hate bat flips.

Really, anyone who showboats loses a lot of points in my book. I'm all about celebrating, but quit being Peter Griffin.

8 comments:

  1. I don't mind a celebration unless it's some kind of "branded" signature type thing. If it's spontaneous like this was, I see it as an emotional reaction and I think that's great. But when Aaron Rodgers does his title belt thing... ESPECIALLY since it's now essentially sponsored by State Farm... it comes across as forced and needy and sad.

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    1. Spontaneous and emotional, I get it. And watching the clip multiple times on YouTube, I can see that. But Bautista has had emotional reactions a bit too much. And he's not the only one, but Bautista's flip is on a baseball card.

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  2. Either way, I love that card. I remember working in my home office and watching it on some terrible online stream. Perhaps the craziest inning of baseball I've ever seen.

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    1. If I had actually seen it live, I think I would have appreciated it more.

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  3. My brother in law and I were having a conversation about "bat flips" tonight after dinner. I absolutely loved Bautista's bat flip! The fact that Topps captured that on a card is fantastic.

    I think there's a fine line in sports between celebrating and being disrespectful. Had Bautista stared and pointed at Holland... or talked smack to him while running around the bases... then that would be crossing the line. But he just hit the biggest home run of his career. Blue Jays fans and teammates were going crazy. Is it realistic to think that the guy who hit the home run would act like it was any run of the mill homer?

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    1. He doesn't have to act like it's nothing. There are dozens (hundreds) of moments in baseball history of players celebrating. This particular moment I understand, too. This card is more of an icon of something that seriously irritates me. When I started getting push notifications about bat flips, it was out of hand.

      I think choosing him was less about the moment on this particular card - I think it's a great card, actually, and as I mentioned, I get the passion. I've seen the clip multiple times. But he's "bat flipped" since, and it actually made the news. And he just comes off as cocky. That's more what I wanted to say.

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  4. I still maintain he didn't flip his bat, he just threw it.

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