No More Celebrating in Baseball

During the latest installment of what many call the greatest rivalry in sports history between the Red Sox and Yankees, we had a good deal of controversy in the late innings over something that used to be so commonplace in baseball. Celebrating. After Francisco Cervelli's fifth inning dong shot last night, he rounded the bases, got to home plate and clapped. Just a simple clap at home plate. Well sensitive, short tempered John Lackey took exception to this and plunked Cervelli in his next at-bat, feeling he was being shown up by Cervelli two innings earlier. In Sox and Yanks fashion, tempers flared and benches cleared. Cervelli was simply fired up about a key home run that he hit and decided to do as most players do and clap his hands together in a celebratory manner.

Which brings me to my point. In today's MLB, it seems as though anytime a player shows a tad of emotion after a key hit, they are guaranteed to get a nice little ched piece between the shoulder blades in their next at-bat. After that player gets hit, the umpire is sure to warn both sides, which leads to pitchers getting unfairly thrown out if they accidentally hit someone in the following innings. It's a vicious cycle and it's hurting the game. Nobody is allowed to have a cool home run celebration anymore. It wasn't always this way, not at all. If you ask me I think a celebration in moderation is good for the game. Remember some of these great home run antics?

- Barry Bonds' home run spin
- Sammy Sosa's gigantic hop
- Brett Boone and Dante Bichette's obnoxious bat flips
- Manny Ramirez with what always seemed like a 10 second observation of his homers before running to first.
- Bash Brothers forearm bump (McGwire and Canseco)

That is just to name a few of the greats. Hell, the Great Bambino had a notoriously long home run trot and I guarantee that man never felt 95 to the spine because of it. Major League pitchers, if you see this, I am begging you, lighten up a little bit and let the boys enjoy their home runs. Hitting players because you are angry you gave up a key bomb isn't the solution. It hurts the game. Pitch better, that'd probably work.

-ZHawk