... this happened:
Look, let me put this as tactfully as possible: Baseball is so dumb that it won't surprise me if something does happen Monday night when the Texas Rangers take on the Toronto Blue Jays. It doesn't matter that Jose Bautista’s home run happened in 2015. Baseball history is full of stories of retribution, stories treated as part of the honorable code of the game.
Will the Rangers throw at Bautista, seven months after his infamous bat flip in Game 5 of the Division Series? It's on everyone's mind:
Rangers can retaliate against Jose Bautista for last year's bat flip tonight. Should they? https://t.co/sonmGOXB76
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) May 2, 2016
The result of that poll: 55 percent of respondents said to let it go; 45 percent said to hit Bautista. Evan Grant covers the Rangers, so I assume most of those voters are Rangers fans, which means nearly half of them are advocating retaliation. So, no, it's not a silly question regarding whether the Rangers should throw at Bautista. Obviously, a large percentage of fans think it's a good idea, even though all Bautista did was come through in the clutch with a monstrous home run and celebrate the moment.
OK, maybe he showed up Sam Dyson just a bit with a stare-down and exaggerated bat toss (let's be honest, it wasn't a mere flip). Well ... get him out and that doesn't happen.
TSN columnist and former major league pitcher Dirk Hayhurst writes that Bautista will get beaned:
Baseball has an allergic reaction to celebratory emotion, especially when it comes on the heels of a great, game/changing accomplishment. Such behaviour makes the other team feel as if they're being snubbed, disrespected, or 'shown up.' Whether it's a fist pump, a bat flip, or a 'pimp job,' it all looks like arrogance and bragging to the fragile pack of narcissists on the other side of the diamond. Though much of the celebratory emotions aren't meant to offend, it’s still taken as an offence.
Because if narcissi like one thing more than themselves, it's being offended.
Bautista's epic ALDS bat flip, however, was meant to offend. If a bat flip and slow trot is showing up the other team, then Bautista’s stand, stare and mic-drop-home run-uber-pimp is like rubbing the Rangers' collective faces in the wet spot they left on the carpet.
Suffice to say, the Rangers will not let Bautista’s insults stand. There will be a reckoning and it will most likely come in the form of 90 mph-plus fastball to the ribs.
Unfortunately, that onus will probably fall on a Rangers starter -- it's A.J. Griffin on Monday night -- as opposed to relief pitcher Dyson, who is more likely to enter in a close game where the situation will dictate getting Bautista out rather than giving up a free base. If I'm Dyson, however, I tell my pitcher teammates: "Let me do it. I created the mess in the first place." Then Dyson can decide: Is retribution worth risking a loss? Is the baseball code that important to preserve?
Then again, maybe the Rangers won't throw at him. Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre told Grant, "That happened, and it's in the past. Did the other team beat us in the playoffs last year? Yes. Besides that, I'm not going to start looking too deep into it. That's stuff that happened last year; I've got too much positive stuff to focus on now."
I hope Beltre is right. Bautista beat your guy. Let it go.