White Sox: Dust-up Over Recent Bat-flip Highlights MLB Culture difference
This past Wednesday, Tim Anderson, the 25-year old player for the Chicago White Sox hit his 50th career home run and did what would be known as the “bat flip-heard-around-the-World”.
According to NBC Sports, Kansas City Royals pitcher Brad Keller retaliated by throwing a fastball at Chicago White Sox SS Tim Anderson. The aftermath led to an all-out twitter discussion about sportsmanship and the different opinions between the two points of view.
The fact is that Major League Baseball is rich with history and is one of the oldest professional Sports in American History. With that said, the league is also the slowest in regards to changing their image of what is fun and what brings out the best in the 21st century.
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One of the biggest controversial points raised to sports fans is celebrations. Often quoted as “unwritten rules of the game”, players feel that baseball players flipping their bats are serious offenses to pitchers and the opposing team. However, people will often point out that pitchers will celebrate on the mound while there is a strikeout, but there is a complete 180 in regards to celebrations.
Major League Baseball needs to make up its mind in regards to modernizing the game and keeping it fun. If pitchers are allowed to celebrate and throw fists when someone is struck out then hitters should be able to throw their bats.
The take that a lot would agree with is the fact that if you (the pitcher) hate seeing bat-flips, then next time there is a showdown make sure that player is struck out. In football, a lot of people would say that if you despise having a score ran up then stop the other team.
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What Chicago White Sox SS Tim Anderson’s bat-flip controversy shows is that MLB still has a long way to go in regards to modernizing the league. Celebrations make sporting events more alluring to the younger crowd. At the end of the day, this is just another form of entertainment and just like other mediums the more exciting, the more dramatic and the more riveting means more viewers.