A modest proposal to counter in-your-face bat flips

I hate it when batters stand an admire their home runs, then flip the bat in defiant contempt. It has nothing to do with those players who say “it is disrespecting the game.” I have no idea what that means, but if I were a pitcher I wouldn’t like to be shown up, which is what Jose Bautista did against Texas in game five of the ALDS.

But I would not hit Bautista the next time I faced him. Instead I offer another solution. Since batters continue to get away with it, the pitcher should be allowed the same opportunity. So the next time a pitcher strikes out Bautista, or any other batter who falls in love with his last homer, the pitcher can stare down the batter, then defiantly throw down his glove as the batter walks back to the dugout. It is the in-your-face equality rule.

The only problem I see is that hitters would not like it, they would complain and cry about disrespecting the game, they would cry and carp about showing up the hitter. And umpires would go along with it I am sure, as batters are allowed to admire their shots, but pitchers must be discreet and civilized because they are only on the mound to serve up towering homeruns.

And of course Joe Torre would not like it and would outlaw pitcher celebrations of strikeouts. He likes doing things that make no sense, like suspending Chase Utley during the playoffs, though there had been many previous hard slides where a player could have been suspended. When Joe says, “I can’t worry about the past only the present,”  that tells me he could have done something, but chose not to until someone got hurt. Bad move Joe. The idea is prevention and that means taking charge before someone breaks his leg. Now you are being a sanctimonious politician.

But I like my idea as it brings equality to showboating. Please forward this blog to all major league pitchers and maybe we can see more defiant fun in 2016. We must get this trending.