"...respect the game above all else...You never, ever disrespect your opponent or your teammates or your organization or your manager and never, ever your uniform...Make a great play? Act like you've done it before. Get a big hit? Look for the third base coach and get ready to run the bases. Hit a home run? Put your head down, drop the bat, run around the bases because the name on the front is a lot more important than the name on the back."
-Ryne Sandberg. Hall of Fame Induction speech.
If only Ryne Sandberg was running Major League Baseball.
I think anybody that plays sports can take a lesson from Ryno. Especially these spoiled rotten pro athletes that every kid that plays the game looks up to. I've started to notice a trend in Major League Baseball, and I don't like it won bit. Walk Off celebrations. I had kind of just let them slide for the most part until Prince Fielder, about two weeks back, pulled off a Lebron James type stunt after hitting a walk off home run. He ran (jogged) around the bases and after rounding third his teammates were all crowded around homeplate ready to pounce on him as soon as he touched it. But as Prince approached the plate, he jumped. What the hell is he doing? He jumped. As he landed on the plate all of his teammates fell to the ground like bowling pins and he rose above them all with his chest out and both hands in the air. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! There is absolutely no room in baseball for this kind of crap!
It wasn't even a big win. They had just beaten the San Francisco Giants (75-62), they were 4 games below .500 and not even close to having a chance to be a playoff team being 14.5 games out of first and 12 games out of the Wild Card. So what was the point? Torii Hunter wasn't even there and he thought it was classless, "I guess it's a different game," he said. "It's all TV, acting, until someone gets hit with a pitch in the chin. I'm old-school. I could never do that."
And how about pitcher Joe Saunders, again, not present, "If I was a pitcher, I'd be [ticked] off," he said. "My mouth would be wide open. I'd be shocked. Baseball is not like the NFL, where you can celebrate in the end zone. You've got to keep your cool, play the game. You can't do that."
It looks like Torii and Joe went to Ryne Sandberg's school of baseball. Then, 10 days later, the New York Yankees hit a walk off single to beat the Toronto Blue Jays. The same Blue Jays who, after that game, were 27.5 games behind the AL East leading Yankees. The whole team ran out on the field and celebrated as if they had won the World Series. The win meant nothing, it was just another the win.
Sure, it's exciting to win games, but save your celebrations for win you accomplish something big. Even the Washington Nationals have won 51 games this year, so don't go out and celebrate like that after a 12th inning walk off home run. Big deal, you have to come back out and play again tomorrow. Bud Selig, who always speaks about baseball being a classier sport than the others, needs to do something about this now. In my opinion, there are only two instances where this should be allowed. After winning the League Championship Series (Come on, you're going to the World Series, you deserve to celebrate a little.) and of course after winning the World Series.
Now what should Bud do to stop this? I have an answer for that too. Tell the teams they cannot leave the dugout until the runner crosses home plate and after that, no excessive celebrating, just high fives and hand shakes (and butt pats if you swing that way), you can do your celebrating in the privacy of your own clubhouse.
If you want to make sure it doesn't happen often, fine every player/coach that participates, as well as the team owner, whenever it happens. This will definitely get people to think twice.
If you want it to stop for good and make sure it (almost) never happens, make the team forfeit the game for being disrespectful to their opponent and the sport. That'll stop it for sure.
-Ryne Sandberg. Hall of Fame Induction speech.
If only Ryne Sandberg was running Major League Baseball.
I think anybody that plays sports can take a lesson from Ryno. Especially these spoiled rotten pro athletes that every kid that plays the game looks up to. I've started to notice a trend in Major League Baseball, and I don't like it won bit. Walk Off celebrations. I had kind of just let them slide for the most part until Prince Fielder, about two weeks back, pulled off a Lebron James type stunt after hitting a walk off home run. He ran (jogged) around the bases and after rounding third his teammates were all crowded around homeplate ready to pounce on him as soon as he touched it. But as Prince approached the plate, he jumped. What the hell is he doing? He jumped. As he landed on the plate all of his teammates fell to the ground like bowling pins and he rose above them all with his chest out and both hands in the air. THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! There is absolutely no room in baseball for this kind of crap!
It wasn't even a big win. They had just beaten the San Francisco Giants (75-62), they were 4 games below .500 and not even close to having a chance to be a playoff team being 14.5 games out of first and 12 games out of the Wild Card. So what was the point? Torii Hunter wasn't even there and he thought it was classless, "I guess it's a different game," he said. "It's all TV, acting, until someone gets hit with a pitch in the chin. I'm old-school. I could never do that."
And how about pitcher Joe Saunders, again, not present, "If I was a pitcher, I'd be [ticked] off," he said. "My mouth would be wide open. I'd be shocked. Baseball is not like the NFL, where you can celebrate in the end zone. You've got to keep your cool, play the game. You can't do that."
It looks like Torii and Joe went to Ryne Sandberg's school of baseball. Then, 10 days later, the New York Yankees hit a walk off single to beat the Toronto Blue Jays. The same Blue Jays who, after that game, were 27.5 games behind the AL East leading Yankees. The whole team ran out on the field and celebrated as if they had won the World Series. The win meant nothing, it was just another the win.
Sure, it's exciting to win games, but save your celebrations for win you accomplish something big. Even the Washington Nationals have won 51 games this year, so don't go out and celebrate like that after a 12th inning walk off home run. Big deal, you have to come back out and play again tomorrow. Bud Selig, who always speaks about baseball being a classier sport than the others, needs to do something about this now. In my opinion, there are only two instances where this should be allowed. After winning the League Championship Series (Come on, you're going to the World Series, you deserve to celebrate a little.) and of course after winning the World Series.
Now what should Bud do to stop this? I have an answer for that too. Tell the teams they cannot leave the dugout until the runner crosses home plate and after that, no excessive celebrating, just high fives and hand shakes (and butt pats if you swing that way), you can do your celebrating in the privacy of your own clubhouse.
If you want to make sure it doesn't happen often, fine every player/coach that participates, as well as the team owner, whenever it happens. This will definitely get people to think twice.
If you want it to stop for good and make sure it (almost) never happens, make the team forfeit the game for being disrespectful to their opponent and the sport. That'll stop it for sure.
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