In August of 2018, then-rookie phenom Ronald Acuña Jr. homered in five consecutive games, including leadoff homers in the final three games of that stretch. He was 20 years old and lighting the baseball world on fire with mile-long taters and equally dynamic bat flips.
In the sixth game, Miami Marlins starter Jose Ureña fired a 97 mile per hour fastball directly at Acuña. It hit him in the elbow and caused him to leave the game. Ureña was rightfully ejected from the game, but a brigade of baseball’s elder statesmen came to his defense, including his manager, Don Mattingly, who did not defend Ureña hitting Acuña but implied it might have been a mistake, even though it was clearly intentional.
“If you watch Jose pitch, every first pitch of every game is pretty much there,” Mattingly said after that 2018 game. “We talked to Jose after the game. He’s saying he knows the guy had been swinging the bat good and he tried to get one close, run it in there, and that was the purpose of his pitch.”
Mets’ broadcaster Keith Hernandez also sided with Ureña.
“They’re killing you. You lost three games. He’s hit three home runs. You gotta hit him,” Hernandez said. “I’m sorry, people aren’t going to like that. You know, you gotta hit him, knock him down. I mean, seriously knock him down if you don’t hit him. You never throw at anybody’s head or neck. You hit him in the back. You hit him in the fanny.”
In August of 2020, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit two home runs against the Texas Rangers, including an eighth inning grand slam on a 3-0 fastball in a game that the Padres were leading by seven runs. With his second home run, he overtook Mike Trout for the league lead in home runs. He was 21 years old and lighting the baseball world on fire with energy, charisma, and laserbeam homers that left the ballpark in the blink of an eye.
And after the game, seemingly against all logic of what is good and fun in baseball, Tatis apologized.
Conventional baseball wisdom says that you do not run up the score when you’re already up big. You don’t steal bases. You play more conservatively. Maybe even take a pitch in a hitter’s count. Conventional baseball wisdom is stupid.
The scope of baseball superstardom is as unique as it has ever been. Gone are the days when a ballplayer’s traditional prime years came between ages 27 and 32. Now, players are exploding onto the scene in their early 20s and carrying offenses on their backs.
Tatis may be the NL MVP frontrunner. Acuña is just 22 and somehow still getting better. Juan Soto led his team to a world championship within a fortnight of being able to drink alcohol legally. Soto himself stared down a 445-foot home run for an extra second and exchanged words with Braves pitcher Will Smith on the same night Tatis clobbered the Rangers. Like Acuña and now Tatis, Soto has also been the subject of baseball traditionalists’ ire.
Major League Baseball comprehends the type of talent they have on their hands. We all remember the “Let the Kids Play” marketing campaign that MLB rolled out last year. It was a great campaign! Yet the league has no interest in letting the kids play.
Case in point with the Marlins drilling Acuña in 2018. Case in point with Tatis succumbing to the pressure from his manager, Jayce Tingler, and teammates, apologizing after a game for doing something incredibly cool.
Baseball can’t have it both ways. They cannot publicly promote their young stars and celebrate them for their bat flips and charisma and at the same time reprimand them for doing exactly that. Eric Hosmer telling the Rangers that he’ll “talk to him” sends the message that Tatis is some insolent child who needs to be talked down to when he breaks a rule. Putting your young stars in time out is the polar opposite of letting them play.
Tatis looked deflated in his post-game presser. He did not look like the young star who just recorded a two-homer, seven-RBI performance. He had been reprimanded and explained why what he did was wrong. He conceded to the media that he would probably take that pitch next time. And even with his apology, chances are that the Rangers may retaliate further tonight.
Not a single person would be surprised if Tatis takes one in the ribs before the Padres leave Arlington. Maybe at that point Chris Woodward will finally be convinced that Tatis ‘learned his lesson’.
But Tatis should never have apologized in the first place. He’s is the most dynamic shortstop in the sport and already a top-10 position player in baseball. Fans are drawn to him because there is never a dull moment when he is on the field. He plays with energy and passion. He is as fun to watch as any baseball player I have ever seen. He was a 21-year-old kid being unapologetically himself on a baseball diamond.
If anyone should apologize, it’s Woodward for managing a baseball team that allowed themselves to be beaten by 10 runs and for encouraging a team culture in which pitchers think it’s ok to retaliate by hurling projectiles at other human beings.
It’s Juan Nicasio, for pitching into a bases loaded jam, falling behind 3-0 to one of the game’s best hitters, and leaving a fat fastball to him. It’s Ian Gibaut for coming into the game and hurling a projectile behind another human being to send a message. It’s Jose Ureña for throwing at Ronald Acuña Jr. and it’s Don Mattingly for enabling that behavior.
It’s Keith Hernandez and all the like-minded baseball lifers and fans who believe players deserve to be knocked down a peg simply because they’re young.
It’s the fans, coaches, and players who became infuriated over Juan Soto’s shuffle, Manny Machado’s showmanship, or Yasiel Puig‘s lax attitude. It’s Major League Baseball for hypocritically promoting young stars when the game’s culture so consistently feels the need to humble them.
Today, MLB rightfully suspended Gibaut three games for throwing behind Machado following Tatis’ slam. Woodward was also suspended a game. Tatis was not suspended because he did absolutely nothing wrong. The kid was doing the thing he knows better than anything else. He was just playing.
Just let the kids play, man.
