Yoenis Cespedes wants more flair in baseball.
After Ian Kinsler drew controversy with his remarks earlier this week complaining of Latin American players showing too much emotion during games, the game was buzzing with outrage. The veteran said of Puerto Rican and Dominican opponents in the World Baseball Classic, “That just wasn’t the way we were raised. They were raised differently and to show emotion and passion when you play. We do show emotion; we do show passion. But we just do it in a different way.”
Cespedes took the opposite position, saying in an interview with CBS Sports that Latin players mean no disrespect with their celebrations and bat flips, and that it’s just a display of their passion and love for the game. “Baseball would grow,” Cespedes said, if American players adopted the same kind of passion instead of sticking to the uptight, longstanding traditions of stateside baseball.
Cespedes is on the money. The traditionalist vigor that is still so pervasive in baseball turns off casual fans, and only serves to puff up the egos of players like Kinsler. Think of the most memorable moments in baseball the past few seasons. Does Jose Batista’s bat flip come to mind? How about Dee Gordon‘s leadoff home run against the Mets after Jose Fernandez‘s passing? Bartolo Colon‘s home run? These were some of the most emotional moments, and the players showed it on the field.
Baseball was never supposed to be a game defined by its rigidity and structure. While it has always had countless rules and technicalities, it’s always been about much more than that. The game itself has a character and personality of its own. Baseball’s transcendent figures almost never became beloved simply for how fast they could pitch or how hard they could hit a ball. Some of the game’s greatest players have also been the game’s most fascinating people.
Baseball has always been a game of emotions and of the human spirit. It’s as much about the final box score as it is the story that led us there. Sacrificing this passion for some straw man sportsmanship argument makes players feel even more self-important than they already do. At the end of the day, baseball is entertainment. We watch it to make us happy, to escape the struggles of our everyday lives, and to take us on an emotional journey.
Baseball should be wholeheartedly embracing players like those on the Puerto Rican and Dominican teams. The emotion, tension, and passion of the big moments make an otherwise slow and deliberate game so addicting.
As baseball looks to court a younger generation of fans, it must not shy away from its big moments. The Twitter generation (my generation) is not going to be wooed by the intricacies of the game, nor will the international markets.
I complain a lot about the old guard of the sport being unwilling to adapt to the changing landscape of sabermetrics and analytics, but I’m just as tired of their stymying of emotion and fun. It’s just a sport. It’s just a game. Take it seriously, but don’t take our joy. Or, in the words of Bryce Harper, “make baseball fun again.”
