All this talk about Joba showing disrespect to opponents with his post-out celebrations is really irritating me. The fact that the players to whom the alleged disrespect was shown have laughed it off should really be the end of the matter as far as I’m concerned.
There’s a litany of players over the years who have had their own celebratory jumps, fist pumps etc and nobody has taken any such notice of them. That this seems to be more of an issue than Manny Ramirez’s ridiculous posing at home after hitting one out is nothing short of utterly pathetic.
After the fiasco last season with the league insisting managers wear their uniform shirts in the dugout, should MLB be coerced into taking some kind of stance on celebrations like Joba’s would just be another sad step towards the League emulating the NFL in its sickening No Fun League attitude.
Next thing you know we’ll be seeing pressure to stop players high-fiving at home plate after hitting a homer. With baseball as popular as it has ever been in history at the minute, there’s no need to try and sterilise the game by trying to take any emotion out of it.
Thankfully Joba seems to be treating this issue with the attitude it deserves: “I am going to be who I am and if I didn’t show that, I’m not being fair to my teammates. I’m letting them down because I’m not being the person that I am. That’s who I am. That’s how I got here. I’m not going to change for anybody. I don’t care what they say or what goes along with it.” You tell em Joba.
Posted by neildo84 