Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. came under fire this week, this after apparently violating one of baseball’s unwritten rules.
The violation? Tatis hit a grand slam on a 3-0 count with a seven-run lead against the Texas Rangers on Monday. Rangers manager Chris Woodward was not happy. Neither was Padres manager Jayce Tingle.
JR SportBrief’s take? Get over it.
“Fernando Tatis Jr. is what baseball needs,” JR said on CBS Sports Radio. “Let’s get off of the fact that he hit a grand slam on a 3-0 count. Let’s cut that out. It ain’t no running the game up. The manager, I’m sorry, you need to shut up, Chris Woodward. Just shut up. Take your licks like a man. Manage the game better. Have some better players. If you don’t like the score, don’t tell Fernando Tatis Jr., ‘I don’t like what you did.’ Next time come out and tell your players, ‘I don’t like that I put you on the mound and you blew it, that you gave up 10 runs, that you put us in that position.’ Say that next time. Don’t put down one of the best players in the game for a decision that he made, like it was a foregone conclusion that the Padres were going to win. We can go back through history. Being down seven runs doesn’t mean game over. If it did, walk off the field next time.”
Tatis apologized for offending the Rangers, but several MLB players came to his defense.
“I am so glad that current stars in baseball and current legends stood up for him,” JR said. “Trevor Bauer, never someone to not be on Twitter and put out his thoughts, told him, ‘Keep swinging 3-0 if you want to, no matter the game situation. Keep hitting home runs. Keep bringing energy and flash to baseball and making it fun. The only thing you did wrong was apologize. Stop that.’ Thank you, Trevor Bauer.”
This, JR explained, is yet another example of Major League Baseball being out of touch. The average MLB viewer is roughly 60 years old. The average NBA and soccer viewer? Right around 40.
“That’s a 20-year difference,” JR said. “That means younger people are not watching baseball. We know this already. We’ve had this conversation. Younger viewers are tuning out. Baseball isn’t doing itself – and hasn’t done itself – any favors. And then you have nonsense like this where you can’t express yourself, you can’t dance, you can’t talk, you can’t celebrate. A pitcher can stand on that mound and strike somebody out and pump his fist. He can go yee-haw all he wants on that mound after a strikeout.
“But the minute a batter celebrates or flips [a bat], ‘Oh, we got to throw at him. We got to throw behind him.’ They threw behind Manny Machado and the benches were warned, basically because Fernando Tatis Jr. did his job. If you’re up at that plate, go swing. If you’re up at that plate and you’re the hottest player in baseball right now, swing the hell away.”