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Around the Horn with Paul Ghiglieri – 6th Edition

The best (and worst) in baseball, where you need it most—high, tight, and inside! Paul Ghiglieri talks about the hypocrisy of baseball's policy on foul language and umpires under fire across the league.

Paul Ghiglieri
Across The Seams 4/22/2019

Welcome to the sixth edition of Around the Horn. If you’re still new to this space, this will be a recurring op-ed that riffs on whatever’s recently noteworthy in baseball, except it will have a more satirical slant. Think of it as a stripped down Last Week Tonight or Daily Show in a column format, except all about baseball. There will be recurring segments about the good, bad, and ugly in the world of America’s pastime. Additionally, as often as possible, we’ll end with an interview as well.

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get right to our first segment:

 

The Rundown

 

Our Main Story

Baseball is a beautiful game with a very rich and storied history. Much of that history is splendid and full of heartwarming nostalgia. Conversely, some of its history is rife with scandal, racism, and prejudice. While the Hall of Fame continues to keep some of the game’s most unsavory characters enshrined while it ignores the steroid era that unceremoniously saved the game itself at one point, MLB has long used Jackie Robinson to spread its message of equality. Robinson’s number, 42, is the only one retired by every major league team, and is done so to honor his impact on the game, and in many respects, society.

That impact took a curious turn this week. Occasionally, issues arise within the game that spark debate, and those issues are not always limited to the rules and constructs that occur between the white lines. Case in point, the moment that this happened:

https://twitter.com/TwitterMoments/status/1118626477816406017

A couple of things to consider here:

  1. Tim Anderson’s bat flip was epic. Keep in mind, all the jawing he did was seemingly at his own dugout as if to rally his teammates. This also happened on the heels of MLB trending #LetTheKidsPlay on Twitter the same week it celebrated Jackie Robinson Day.
  2. Brad Keller clearly took umbrage with the demonstration and promptly drilled Anderson in the hip with a 92 mph fastball. I imagine striking Anderson 0ut would have been a far more appropriate response. Keller later claimed the ball “got away” from him, and he wasn’t “trying to put a guy on in a 2-2 ballgame in the sixth inning.” Yeah, that would seem pretty foolish, wouldn’t it? Almost as foolish as expecting anyone to believe the ball “got away.” After all, doesn’t every pitcher march toward home plate ready to throw down every time the ball gets away?
  3. All that being said, a lot of these bat flips, whether intentionally or not, come across as showing up the pitcher. And many players clearly feel such demonstrative celebrations disrespect how hard it is to get to the big leagues and be competitive. No matter where you stand on these types of celebrations and their corresponding retaliations, your stance is very much rooted in how you feel about one thing as it pertains to the game: humility. If you feel humility is a value that should be an integral part of the game, then you probably don’t feel a celebration like Anderson’s is warranted in the sixth inning of a mid-April day game. Perhaps you feel such celebrations have no place in the game because they lack respect for your opponent, or maybe you prefer they be reserved for moments like Kirk Gibson or Joe Carter in the World Series. Then again, if humility means less to you, then you’re probably fine with Anderson’s flamboyant bat flip and feel that’s the kind of energy baseball needs in a new era to attract newer, younger viewers.
  4. Keller was naturally suspended for the beaning, and apparently, Anderson was summarily suspended for this:

Look, there is no room in the game of baseball for racial slurs, especially the week Robinson is celebrated. However, we should take into account the fact that Anderson is black, and there may be some context to his remarks that MLB is missing entirely.

The “N-word” is a disgusting slur meant to dehumanize an entire group of people based on nothing more than the color of their skin. It is deplorable for any white person to use this word when addressing a black person. However, it can be argued that part of the way African-Americans have coped with years of racial injustice is to take a hateful word long weaponized to emotionally assault them and effectively seize ownership of the word. The context of when and how African-Americans use this word is much different than how it was directed at them for more than a hundred years.

I’m not advocating that MLB allow language such as this to be normalized, but it would seem sensible for the league to focus its energy on those who would use this word hatefully and hurtfully, perhaps by glorifying Robinson’s legacy and positive impact on the game in ads targeting those with the audacity to continue to hurt others with that word.

Instead, MLB opts to exploit Robinson as a means to bolster profits for a big sponsor like Budweiser, and then it promptly suspends Anderson on the grounds that he used foul language. For a league that won’t tolerate “foul language,” it sure seems ironic that the Anderson vs. Keller incident that led to Anderson’s suspension for the use of foul language happened within days of this happening:

It’s also somewhat disingenuous when you tolerate language like this and issue no suspensions whatsoever. (Warning: Link features explicit language.)

Nonetheless, we can probably all agree that baseball is better without the use of the “N-word,” regardless of who says it. Hopefully, we can also agree that MLB’s protocol for suspensions needs some serious re-evaluation:

My sentiments, exactly.

Out of the Park


A Look Beyond the Boxscores for the Best in Baseball This Week

Brock Holt might have made the Dad Hall of Fame with this gem:

Yes, this probably is the greatest double play you’ll ever see with an insane cannon shot from Ramon Laureano:

Then again, this one might give it a run for its money:

 

Backdoor Sliders


Where Baseball Got Caught Looking

The umpires have been under fire to begin the season, and for good reason in many instances. First, we had Ron Kulpa giving all umps a bad name with his chauvinistic bullying, and now we have umps straight up dropping the mic after a bad call:

Yes, it is a bad look. Terrible calls are seemingly on the rise, and players and even managers now are venting their frustration more and more. The most controversial solution, electronic strike zones, isn’t one we will examine here today, but Ryan Addition sure is adding fuel to that fire:

https://twitter.com/andrew_vargha/status/1118952594871738368

Brandon Belt has a point when he says something has to be done when players’ at-bats are being taken away, and umpires have to make adjustments the same way players are expected to do in this game. Bruce Bochy got ejected with Belt, and he’d probably agree with his first baseman that something should be done, indeed.

Minor league umpires only have about a 3 percent chance of making it to the major leagues, compared to the nearly one out of every six drafted players who make it to the majors, so the ones who do make it are considered the very best at their jobs. The ones who do make it live far from glamorous lives. Perhaps umpires feel disrespected by players, managers, and even fans for so readily criticizing their efforts to the point of arguing they be replaced by robots.

Perhaps if some of them did their jobs better, they wouldn’t be scrutinized, some would argue.

But it’s not that simple. Especially not when instant replay is around to point out how you blew a call in front of thousands of people. Nor is it that simple when the average velocity has never been higher, and pitches between 96 and 100 mph move like this Luis Castillo fastball:

Umpires, like players, should always be held accountable for their actions and performance on the field. They should always be striving to get better. We don’t demand robot players when a player goes 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and makes an error in the field. It’s perfectly acceptable to demand umpires take responsibility and conduct themselves like professionals. One can argue they should be treated like professionals, as well.

 

Extra Bags

 

In case you still thought being an umpire was easy, we call this a triple kill!

And that’s the ballgame for this week!

 (Photo by Quinn Harris/Icon Sportswire)

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Paul Ghiglieri

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Paul Ghiglieri has written fantasy analysis and hardball columns for PitcherList and FantasyPros. A lifelong Giants fan living in LA, he spends his free time writing screenplays with metaphors for life only half as good as baseball.

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