St. Louis Cardinals: Goose Gossage’s Comments Represent Divide

In case St. Louis Cardinals’ fans missed it yesterday, a pitcher from a certain era lashed out against the players in this era and it was wrong.

Yesterday, the 64 year old and always opinonated “Goose” Rich Gossage lashed out at players who are exuberant and flashy in their play. He specifically targeted Toronto Blue Jays’ RF Jose Bautista with comments stating that “Bautista is a f—ing disgrace to the game, He’s embarrassing to all the Latin players, whoever played before him. Throwing his bat and acting like a fool, like all those guys in Toronto.”

Ok, Mr. Cranky Pants. This is everything that is wrong with the game. The mindest that these players can’t have fun and can’t enjoy the moment is ridiculous. Bryce Harper mentioned yesterday that Baseball is a “tired sport, because you can’t express yourself. You can’t do what people in other sports do,” and he has a point.

In football you see guys celebrating after thing, even in a losing game, in basketball you have had celebrations after big moments for a long time, in hockey guys have been celebrating after goals since forever.

Celebration is a part of life. When you asked your wife to marry you and she said yes, you didn’t shake her hand and say “good job honey, way to make the right answer, now let’s go take a cold shower,” no you celebrated loudly or excitedly gave her a hug and kiss.

When your seven year old walks in from school and excitedly tells you he aced his spelling test, you don’t stare him down and tell him “celebrating is not tolerated in this household,” you yourself get as excited as he does and offer to take him out to get ice cream.

For some reason, we have let baseball become this “no fun zone” kind of sport and it’s completely ridiculous. My fellow St. Louis Cardinals’ fans are not immune, how many times have we complained about another team’s actions and wanted our pitcher to come out and put one on them Bob Gibson style. How many times were we (stupidly) miffed about the Milwaukee Brewers untucking their jerseys after a win.

Seriously? We were upset about jerseys being untucked? That doesn’t even relate to a game, that was their team’s way of celebrating, their way of saying “yeah that was a tough W, but we got it.”

Having read about some former players and the way the game was played back then reminds me of kids playing on a playground. I get the retaliation stuff, as that is protecting your teammates, but the “let’s hit a guy because he did his job and hit a home run,” is pretty stupid.

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Kids today have everything in the world in front of them and they have the opiton to choose whatever spor they want. Do we want them to hate the game because players like Carlos Martinez can’t celebrate after a big strikeout? Or do we want them to watch guys like Bryce Harper and Jose Bautista flip their bat in excitement after a big home run and think that is just as cool as Lebron James dunking on someone and makiing a ridiculous dance move.

This reminds me of the notion I have heard in youth ministry regarding teen depression, “I was never depressed as a teenager, so I think they are just going through a phase and they will get out of it.” This is the most ignorant and selfish opinion and yet people seriously think that and teens don’t get the help they need because of it.

It was refreshing to hear Bernie Miklasz this morning rant about Gossage being in the wrong. Baseball doesn’t need to change aspects of the game itself to appeal to youth, baseball needs an attitude adjustment from the current and former players. No I am not asking for every player to start pimping homeruns like it is the homerun derby, but it wouldn’t hurt to see a little more flair in the game.

It is good to see guys like Harper and Bautista bringing some elements of flair to the game. I for one love Carlos Martinez and his visible emotions, and don’t think it has a thing to do with how he pitches (looking at you Al Hrabrosky). Baseball is a fun game, let’s let it be fun for the players.

I am not asking for Randal Grichuk to start doing cartwheels around the bases when he hits a homer, just a little smile and point to the dugout if it’s a big moment would do.

Goose’s comments regarding player saftety are just as stupid as people who think the NFL and NHL don’t have concussion problems. MLB practically eliminated the biggest and most obvious concussion risk in their sport and the game is safer because of it.

Well, that will do it for today’s rant, I know you will likely have an opinion differnt than mine, and that is fine. This is my favorite sport, and to see a former Hall of Famer step on it for getting better and evolving is ridiculous. Have a great day.