Brandon Phillips: Baseball Needs More Swag

[OldXOhio]

Since Sept 1: .205/.276/.261, 1 HR, 3 RBI.

I'm glad he has swag. He's playing like Juan Castro.

Now that's funny

[New York Red]

I have said it before and will say it again: Phillips is exactly right. Young people don't enjoy baseball as much as basketball and football because there is this whole "don't celebrate" rule. It turns young people away from the sports and it isn't good. That grown men get their feelings hurt and then want to fight over it because someone celebrated doing well is what is wrong with baseball.

I love this game and I always will. But baseball needs more flashy players to keep young people in the game. Baseball needs less "put your head down and run after you hit a baseball 475 feet" without the whole "we are going to throw a 95 MPH fastball at you or one of your teammates because we weren't able to get you out and you stared at the ball a little longer than I would have appreciated" stuff. Brandon is right.

Baseball did just fine for well over 100 years without swag and hot-dogging. Maybe the current "look at me" culture is the problem, not the game.

[New York Red]

Anyone else get excited when a player celebrates a sack or a first down with their team trailing by three touchdowns? Yea, me neither.

[dougdirt]

Baseball did just fine for well over 100 years without swag and hot-dogging. Maybe the current "look at me" culture is the problem, not the game.

Like it or not, if the game is going to survive, it is going to need to be current with the culture.

Young people don't like boring. Tim Duncan is one of the best players ever. I doubt he is anyones favorite player outside of wherever Wake Forest is located or San Antonio. Why? Because he is freaking boring to watch. The guy is an excellent basketball player, one of the best. But there is no excitement in watching it. He is a robot, or at least appears to be. People want personality, they want excitement, they want emotion. They don't want robots. Not anymore.

[dougdirt]

Anyone else get excited when a player celebrates a sack or a first down with their team trailing by three touchdowns? Yea, me neither.

No, but I sure love seeing the excitement the team gets when a guy celebrates a sack or interception in a close game.

I am not a rah-rah cheerer at the games. I honest to God love to just sit back and relax at a baseball game. I clap for our guys and when we score I might high five the people I came with. That's just who I am. But I get where Brandon is coming from. His generation is about those things. Whether you like it or not, that is what they are drawn to.

[New York Red]

No, but I sure love seeing the excitement the team gets when a guy celebrates a sack or interception in a close game.

I am not a rah-rah cheerer at the games. I honest to God love to just sit back and relax at a baseball game. I clap for our guys and when we score I might high five the people I came with. That's just who I am. But I get where Brandon is coming from. His generation is about those things. Whether you like it or not, that is what they are drawn to.

The NBA has completely banned all types of celebrations, yet the league is wildly popular with the current younger generation.

[dougdirt]

The NBA has completely banned all types of celebrations, yet the league is wildly popular with the current younger generation.

Celebrations, sure. Showing emotion, getting excited? No. Aside from Brandon Phillips, I don't remember the last time I saw a Red with any kind of excitement after a play that wasn't a walkoff type of play.

The NBA is popular because the players can make the game exciting with their flash and if someone crosses you over or dunks over you, odds are that they aren't going to decide to fight you the next time they are guarding you. In baseball though, if you do something that shows a guy up, they are going to do something to try and harm you. It isn't good for the game. The game itself tries to keep everything to a 1950's type of atmosphere of robot play. In the NBA if a guy makes a circus type of shot and gets fouled, they will pound their chest, show excitement in some way. Then the game goes on. In MLB that gets a 95 MPH fastball to your ribs.

[Marc D]

Celebrations, sure. Showing emotion, getting excited? No. Aside from Brandon Phillips, I don't remember the last time I saw a Red with any kind of excitement after a play that wasn't a walkoff type of play.

The NBA is popular because the players can make the game exciting with their flash and if someone crosses you over or dunks over you, odds are that they aren't going to decide to fight you the next time they are guarding you. In baseball though, if you do something that shows a guy up, they are going to do something to try and harm you. It isn't good for the game. The game itself tries to keep everything to a 1950's type of atmosphere of robot play. In the NBA if a guy makes a circus type of shot and gets fouled, they will pound their chest, show excitement in some way. Then the game goes on. In MLB that gets a 95 MPH fastball to your ribs.

Marlin Swag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u32EuCmPtdA

[dougdirt]

Marlin Swag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u32EuCmPtdA

Ok, that gives me two thoughts..... first, that is hilarious. Secondly, I said I don't remember the last time a Red that wasn't Phillips showed some emotion on the field in a non-walk off win. Chapman. Somersault. Technically a game ending play, but still.

[Marc D]

Ok, that gives me two thoughts..... first, that is hilarious. Secondly, I said I don't remember the last time a Red that wasn't Phillips showed some emotion on the field in a non-walk off win. Chapman. Somersault. Technically a game ending play, but still.

I was really only going for the first part.

Overall I think you are over generalizing this a bit. MLB players show non walk off emotion all the time without a bean ball war erupting the following inning.

[Roy Tucker]

Whatever it takes to get your motor started, I don't care. Just win, baby.

A past-middle age balding white guy from the leafy burbs like me would look pretty silly with swag. I'll stand with my polo Reds shirt and make a tight fist and say "yessss". That's about as swag as I get. Accountant-style.

[Roy Tucker]

dp

[dougdirt]

I was really only going for the first part.

Overall I think you are over generalizing this a bit. MLB players show non walk off emotion all the time without a bean ball war erupting the following inning.

Maybe I am. I don't know.

I just know that I don't see the excitement shown by the players are much in baseball as I do in other sports. Perhaps it is because there are fewer opportunities to show it than in other sports. I do think though that baseball, much more so than in any other sport, really frowns upon people showing outward excitement for their play.

[dougdirt]

Whatever it takes to get your motor started, I don't care. Just win, baby.

A past-middle age balding white guy from the leafy burbs like me would look pretty silly with swag. I'll stand with my polo Reds shirt and make a tight fist and say "yessss". That's about as swag as I get. Accountant-style.

No high-fives? Come on man, we have the guy who invented them as our manager!

[Marc D]

Maybe I am. I don't know.

I just know that I don't see the excitement shown by the players are much in baseball as I do in other sports. Perhaps it is because there are fewer opportunities to show it than in other sports. I do think though that baseball, much more so than in any other sport, really frowns upon people showing outward excitement for their play.

I agree. Baseball has a strong culture of "don't show it" but I think some of the lack of emotion is due to the even keel you have to keep as a player as well. Especially at the MLB level.

For the sake of their own performance, and sanity, they can't get as excited as players do in football or basketball.