OffThePost.org

Yanks out. Only three hits against the Astros.

Cubbies in, Pirates out.

The more starving fanbase wins, but Pittsburgh losing three straight Wild Card games is pretty bad.

Bautista did not choreograph some elaborate touchdown dance here. He did not set out to insult the manliness or integrity of Sam Dyson or the Texas Rangers. He had just hit the second biggest home run in Toronto Blue Jays history and, for anyone younger than, say, 25, the biggest in living memory. Most definitely the biggest moment of his professional life. If you are the sort of person who thinks that such a thing cannot be celebrated, you should just give up trying to find happiness in life, consult an actuary about exactly how much time you have left until you die and optimize your investments accordingly. And please, as you do so, be sure your door is closed and your curtains are drawn because the very sight of such a joyless figure as yourself will bring the rest of humanity down.

Pressure + Triumph = Exuberance. If you find that equation troublesome or the concept behind it difficult to grok, you have challenges far beyond trying to get major league hitters out. If you think that some Kafkaesque, self-contradictory, thought and emotion-policing set of “game-respecting” rituals take precedence over it, you’re missing the very point of sports, entertainment and, maybe, even the concept of joy itself.

One of the best articles ever written about 'respect for the game'.

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/10/15/jos ... -the-game/

I particularly like these paragraphs:

Jose Bautista GRRRRRRAAAAAHHHHHHH

Back to Choogate. I knew that -gate suffixes are tired, which is why I'm so fond of them. They convey so much information and annoy readers. Pretty sure that's all right there on my CV.

Jose Bautista felt the frustration. The Rangers had a gift lead, exploiting a loophole. We were all tweeting the specific rule back and forth, but all the Blue Jays knew was, hey, screw that, that chump didn't score on a single. The other guy didn't drive him in. The pitcher wasn't so wild that he allowed the run to score. This was a fluke, this was the World Series winner being decided because Randy Johnson vaporized a dove. What happened? Where's the justice?

They were mad. And I can't possibly understand how anyone couldn't understand that. Even if Odor scoring was the correct call. The Blue Jays felt cheated. After 22 years, that's not something to shrug off.

Then Jose Bautista used his bat to pull the soul from the baseball and eat it. He watched the empty shell sail over the wall. And he discarded the bat, disgusted that it didn't send the ball even farther. People got mad that he was so demonstrative.

That's absurd. Look at this:


You see Bautista looking at the pitcher for a split second. That's him saying, "Am I pissed at this pitcher? No, man. I'm pissed at THE FUCKING UNIVERSE" and flipping the bat accordingly. Hopefully he hit the universe in the eye. Good for him.

Think of where Bautista came from. He came up with the '04 Orioles, who were garbage. They said, nah, don't need you. So they sent him to the '04 Rays, who were unimpeachable garbage. They passed. No thanks. He traveled to the '04 Royals, one of the bigger shitstorms in the last 20 years, and they traded him after a month. He was on the Mets for a day -- literally a day --- before he moved to the Pirates, who were a dirigible accident of a franchise back then.

The worst teams in baseball didn't want him. Then he became a six-time All-Star. And you're telling him that his first chance in the postseason, his first chance to play deep into October, is going to be ruined because of a technicality? He wasn't flipping the bat at the Rangers. He was flipping the bat at the technicality.

I know it didn't feel good to the Rangers and Sam Dyson. It can't. It's you biffing a job interview or a first date and someone getting right in your face and yelling "YOU SURE SCREWED THAT UP." It's not nice. It's hurtful. Don't get sensitive to the overly sensitive reactions. They're justified.

Just look at the bat flip. It was weighed down with pain and struggle, and Bautista still flipped it to the moon.

Good.

What a shot. What a player. What timing.

The display of emotion in a baseball game should not be taken as some kind of violation of WASP proprieties but an organic human reaction to the joy of making beauty.

Grant Brisbee is nuts. Love McCovey Chronicles. All the readers who generate stuff for the site try to write like him. It's an insane asylum.