Votto shushing the crowd?

[REDblooded]

When he finishes his follow-through it looks like he immediately looks back at somebody in the crowd behind home plate...

[edabbs44]

There is a difference between showboating/being disrespectful and enjoying your work and the game.

Internal auditors generally don't chest bump in front of you after they find fault with your work. Prosecutors generally don't do the Ickey Shuffle on top of the defense table after getting a guilty verdict.

Now sporting events are entertainment and deserve a little more fun than the examples above. But do it the right way. If you don't, you know what you just opened the door to.

[[deleted]]

Eh, I'll agree with doug on this one, for all the reasons already stated. Things like this annoy me to no end, especially when the only real defense is one born of (in my opinion, misguided) tradition: it's just part of baseball! Ugh.

You're throwing a baseball with the express intention of hitting another person. It's childish and dangerous. Calling it just a "brushback" is a cop-out. Yeah, pitchers will miss on inside pitches and guys will get hit now and then - that's part of the risk assumed in playing the game. The difference is intention, and it's irrelevant whether that intention can be proven. It just disappoints me that we've cultivated a culture in the game wherein guys think it's acceptable and expected.

I mean this when I say it - if I was a professional pitcher, I just wouldn't do it.

[kaldaniels]

Eh, I'll agree with doug on this one, for all the reasons already stated. Things like this annoy me to no end, especially when the only real defense is one born of (in my opinion, misguided) tradition: it's just part of baseball! Ugh.

You're throwing a baseball with the express intention of hitting another person. It's childish and dangerous. Calling it just a "brushback" is a cop-out. Yeah, pitchers will miss on inside pitches and guys will get hit now and then - that's part of the risk assumed in playing the game. The difference is intention, and it's irrelevant whether that intention can be proven. It just disappoints me that we've cultivated a culture in the game wherein guys think it's acceptable and expected.

I mean this when I say it - if I was a professional pitcher, I just wouldn't do it.

I disagree that brushbacks are intended to hit the batter. I don't see it as a copout. Just a true difference between chin music and a beanball.

[Roy Tucker]

Jeez, I didn't realize I'd stirred up a hornets nest.

I don't think it's ever right to throw at a hitter. To throw at a hitter because they got a HR off you is childish and dangerous.

Brushing a guy back, though, is part of the game. Maye he's getting a little too comfortable at the plate, maybe you want to take back that inner 3 inches, or frankly, maybe you want to intimidate him and knock him back on his heels. It's a game played by grown-up men. Sometimes it gets real serious.

Every game played has some intimidation factor to it. I used to get in fistfights with my brothers over wiffle ball games. Doesn't matter what the game is, what matters is the competition.

[westofyou]

Jeez, I didn't realize I'd stirred up a hornets nest.

I don't think it's ever right to throw at a hitter. To throw at a hitter because they got a HR off you is childish and dangerous.

Brushing a guy back, though, is part of the game. Maye he's getting a little too comfortable at the plate, maybe you want to take back that inner 3 inches, or frankly, maybe you want to intimidate him and knock him back on his heels. It's a game played by grown-up men. Sometimes it gets real serious.

Every game played has some intimidation factor to it. I used to get in fistfights with my brothers over wiffle ball games. Doesn't matter what the game is, what matters is the competition.

The games base instinct is wrapped around "fear" the hitter is afraid of the ball and the pitcher is afraid of what the hitter can do with the ball. Therefore the pitcher uses the batters fear to try and keep the balance of the game in his favor. Nature if the beast

[jhiller21]

Double post

[jhiller21]

Brushing a guy back, though, is part of the game. Maye he's getting a little too comfortable at the plate, maybe you want to take back that inner 3 inches, or frankly, maybe you want to intimidate him and knock him back on his heels. It's a game played by grown-up men. Sometimes it gets real serious.

Exactly. Imagine standing in against Chapman and crowding the plate. If he brushed you back with a fastball it changes the whole at-bat. Baseball is a dangerous game, and sometime people are thrown at. It's part of the game. Junior used to drop the bat and watch his longballs fly out all the time with that cocky stride of his. He got plunked more than a few times.

Would I do it if I were a pitcher who was shown up on a homer two innings ago? No, but a lot of guys would. Drop your head and run the bases.

[reds44]

methinks knowing you're gonna take one in the back or ribs after displaying a little "me" time following a homer or some other grand feat is exactly what keeps us from having to put up with Terrell Owens' and Chad Johnsons of the world. I only wish Fernando Rodney had to bat every now and then....in my opinon of course

This is just a ridiculous comment. Dudes get flat out laid out in football in every play, and they still showboat. You think fear of getting drilled is what keeps people from showboating? Prince Fielder doesn't show boat? Ken Griffey Jr. didn't? Brandon Phillips? Ryan Ludwick skips everytime he hits a ball into the outfield.

Personally, I have the type of personality if somebody was going to drill me, the next time I went up I would showboat twice as hard.

[Tommyjohn25]

My word. As someone said earlier, thankfully baseball wasn't invented today. Everyone is so concerned with players getting hurt that they lose sight of the fact that they're playing a SPORT. If Roger Goodell was the commissioner of baseball, he probably would have banned any pitch thrown over 92 mph by now. These are grown, competitive, alpha-males getting millions of dollars to play a game they've played their whole lives, they might get a ouchie every now and then, and yes, there's going to be times where it's intentional.

[dougdirt]

The amount of people who think it is ok to purposefully try and hurt someone because they showboated is astounding to me.

[TSJ55]

The amount of people who think it is ok to purposefully try and hurt someone because they showboated is astounding to me.

A purpose pitch isn't necessarily meant to "hurt" someone. Sometimes they throw it behind a guy like R. Halladay did that kid from the Nats. The message is the same.

Even if they do actually try and hit someone, it isn't necessarily meant to hurt them. If they hit them in the leg, or back, or some other meaty spot it may sting for second but rarely will it even bruise.
(Before you go there, I understand that pitchers will occasionally miss their spot and someone can get hit in the hand or foot where the small bones are in danger of being fractured)

I still contend that the best way to not wear a pitch is very simple...don't be a clown.

[westofyou]

It's amazing to me the amount of "in the vacuum" analysis that occurs on Redszone these days.

The game is old and has its patterns that existed when handlebar mustaches were around the first time. Some things are basic in the game and control of emotions is one of them, control the other teams emotions and you have an advantage.

[dougdirt]

A purpose pitch isn't necessarily meant to "hurt" someone. Sometimes they throw it behind a guy like R. Halladay did that kid from the Nats. The message is the same.

Even if they do actually try and hit someone, it isn't necessarily meant to hurt them. If they hit them in the leg, or back, or some other meaty spot it may sting for second but rarely will it even bruise.
(Before you go there, I understand that pitchers will occasionally miss their spot and someone can get hit in the hand or foot where the small bones are in danger of being fractured)

I still contend that the best way to not wear a pitch is very simple...don't be a clown.

People in this thread had said it is "a part of the game" to bean someone for showboating. You don't purposefully throw a baseball 90+ MPH at someone and think it isn't going to hurt them.

[thatcoolguy_22]

It's amazing to me the amount of "in the vacuum" analysis that occurs on Redszone these days.

The game is old and has its patterns that existed when handlebar mustaches were around the first time. Some things are basic in the game and control of emotions is one of them, control the other teams emotions and you have an advantage.

Exactly. There is a reason these things have been apart of the game for so long.

I still say the vast majority (probably 90%+) of injuries from being hit by a pitch, are accidents. You don't see major league pitchers trying to hit someone in the head. 99% of pitches thrown at someone are in the meat. As WOY said, "Emotion control." Baseball isn't football. You usually play worse when you're "fired up" or whatever. It's why you hear countless hitters say they just want to stay relaxed or whatnot in the box.