Rematch Turns Ugly – Poor Message To Kids

For those able to understand what sports are about, regardless of your chosen sport, they are meant to be played in a safe environment, to have fun and not to let off “steam”.

Watching the recent Blue Jay’s game against the Texas Rangers, most knew that there would be a reprisal for Bautista’s “bat flip” last October’s American League Division Series game.

Right or wrong it was done in a moment to excite the fans as well as elevate the fans taking the game in, especially since it was played on home soil.

MLB are trying to take the “cheap slide” out of the game as it is clearly meant as a means to injure an opponent in which one could call it a “career ending” slide.

It’s clear to say that two wrong’s don’t make a right, but for the players that get paid far too much, they clearly don’t understand this mind set.

Why, because they have a win at all cost and simply have no respect for the opponent and the more they win, the more they can demand when it comes to the next contract.

Jay’s fans call it showmanship, ridding the team of two decades of disappointment, while others call it arrogance, by a “star” player who kids want to emulate.

Texans call it simply bizarre display that led to the ugly fight filled end to an otherwise contentious game, with many direct hits being delivered at batters.

The flip was also a means of rubbing “salt in the wound” of the blown series lead that fell apart in three straight errors in one of the strangest seventh inning I (personally) have ever watched.

Others say the “bat-flip” mention it dates back to the traditional code held in the MLB years back.

This clearly might have been a “pay-back” earlier in the month when Bautista faced Sam Dyson in a re-match of their prior meeting.

As one would expect Bautista was faced with a barrage of “boo’s” by the Texas crowd, but at first nothing was made of it, until late in the 8^th inning.

With Bautista’s final at bat he faced Matt Bush who was a 30 year-old rookie, who wasn’t even on the Rangers roster last season and made his major-league debut.

Why – after spending three years imprisoned for multiply DUI’s and maybe this was his way of making an impact, which he did as everyone is not talking about his ability, but more of his imprisonment.

As the eight began he drilled Bautista with a 90+ fastball placing him on first which represented the tying run.

Justin Smoak (two batters later) hammered a grounder to the left side of the infield sending Bautista with a hard slid into the bag and into Odor.

He immediately took exception to the slide as he was trying to this into a double play ending the inning.

The two players shoved and then Odor let loose a right hook that caught Bautista square in the jaw, but he never went down and Bautista seemed more surprised by Odor’s punch than anything else.

Kevin Pillar and Josh Donaldson flew out of the Jays’ dugout, wildly charging into the melee in the hopes of reaching Odor. Russell Martin, meanwhile, had Dyson in a headlock after Dyson tackled him to the ground.

John Gibbons (Jay’s manager) who was ejected in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes but returned to the field during the brawl and mentioned it was “gutless” for the Rangers to go after Bautista when they did.

He continued “The other 29 teams out there, if they’ve got an issue they come at you right away and to wait until the end it just kind of tells me something about them.”

Following the game Bautista did admit he went hard into second, which he “thought” was within the boundaries of the code.

He told the media “It shows a little bit of the apparent lack of leadership that they have over there when it comes to playing baseball the right way and baseball plays are supposed to be taken care of by baseball plays.”

Bush on the other hand had no comment when he was asked if the pitch was intentional, while Odor was not available to the media.

Is this really a surprise?

The interesting part for this is to see what suspension the MLB will hand out and who they nail as the one who initiated the entire mêlée?

Raptors win and advance and Jay’s look like sore losers and surprise, surprise a ball game turned into a hockey game!!