*deep breath*
I'm going to make one post and one post only. I'm walking into the lion's den being a long time, die hard Rangers fan.
That said, I'm willing to take my lumps.
1. I have no issue with the bat flip. Granted, I'm annoyed but how much people talk about it and go on about it, and how over blown it was. Bautista does a bat flip for every no-doubter. If a 6 year old little girl from Toronto Sick Kids tossed a pitch in a charity game and Bautista launched it, he'd bat flip. I honestly don't think he means any disrespect, it's part of his game. Connect and launch it, flip the bat.
So again, I personally have zero issue with the bat flip.
2. Do I have an issue with Bautista being intentionally hit? I can see where the Rangers would have issue with the bat flip, and want their "pound of flesh" as Zaun puts it. It's part of the game. Personally, I'd leave sleeping dogs lie, but I get it. I would have done it game 1.
3. Bush's bean ball. I didn't see the play live, I assumed Bush clocked him with a 97mph fast ball. As, I mean, that's what you'd do to intentionally get retribution right?
I can't tell if it got away from Bush or not. It doesn't look like a 97mph fastball to me, but I have difficulty telling pitches apart.
I don't think it had the speed to be intentional, but I do think it had the direction to be intentional.
Zaun argues, 1 run game, do you really put the game tying run on base? I mean look what happened last night with Tollenson's blown save.
Likely intentional, but I'd have thought it would be a harder pitch than it was.
4. Bautista's slide. Did he try and take out both Odor's legs? No. Could he have? Yes.
Was it a dirty slide? Yes. It caused Odor to throw the ball into right field, as he avoided the slide. Just because it could have been worse, doesn't mean that it was fine.
Frankly I think this was a bad decision by Bautista as he guaranteed the double-play due to the new interference rule. Now if the old rules were in play the slide was fine, but Odor could have used the neighbourhood rule to protect himself.
I can understand why Odor took issue.
5. Should Odor have pushed Bautista? Nope. End sentence.
6. The punch. People are using the term suckerpunch. Maybe a suckerpunch means something different out west (I mean that sincerely) but where I come from you can't look someone in the eye and suckerpunch them. If it's face on, it's just a punch. Regardless, this is semantics that could be irrelevant, I don't mean to change the topic.
Bautista was raising his arms, Odor just got his up quicker and connected. For the record, Bautista took it like a champ. Props to him for that.
7. Scrum that ensued, it's common in all of sports to have the player that got the better of the bout to be quickly removed. Hence Odor being on the outside at the end of the scrum. Not saying that he wasn't protected, I mean he did back away from Pillar (something no one mentioned here yet, but in the spirit of openness and trying to be unbiased, Odor did do).
8. Showing a single play where Odor slid dirty into second is merely an attempt to reframe the argument away from the issue at hand. I'm not saying Odor isn't dirty (I'm not saying he is) and I'm not saying there isn't multiple plays that could be considered dirty (every player has them). Just pointing out it's not directly relevant to this situation, and one play doesn't establish a pattern.
So to recap:
- No issue with the bat flip,
- Not a fan of intentionally hitting a batter but understand it's part of the game,
- Not 100% sold that Bautista was intentionally hit but on a balance of probabilities I'd think so - just don't understand why it wasn't a rocket (not that I think that's what should have happened),
- Bautista's slide into 2nd was dirty but could have been worse (which doesn't make the slide clean)
- Odor shouldn't have pushed Bautista
- Bautista was raising his arms, Odor clocked him (don't agree with it, but it's what happened)
Hate me all you want for being a Nolan Ryan fan as a kid and sticking with his team. I'm trying to be impartial here.
I wanted to give a non-Jays/Rangers perspective knowing I'm going to get flamed for it, it's for the benefit of those who aren't too blinded by their love of the Jays.
I feel that as a fan, I'm likely the only one who can give this perspective so I am.
This is the last I'll comment on the issue.
Flame away
