Last night, the Cubs’ Wilson Contreras launched a home run in the 3rd inning. He celebrated as he headed to first by launching the bat high into the air as well. The camera angle down the first base line made it look like the bat went as high as the ball. It was beautiful.
The slumping White Sox were not as pleased with that as I was. Their pitcher plunked him in the seventh and promptly got ejected. Their manager argued he should not have been, that the ball “just got away from him.” Yeah. Right.
Contreras responded by hitting another home run in the 9th to put the exclamation point on the 10-0 rout. Afterward he shrugged the plunking off, correctly pointing out that the pitcher hurt his team by getting ejected and would likely face a suspension, too. He was also unapologetic for being exuberant, and has no reason to be. That’s not taunting or showing up anybody; it’s just being happy about doing something good. Baseball is better when the players have fun. Bat flips are fun.
Fan Interference 
Funny how the White Sox had no issue with bat flipping when it was Tim Anderson doing the flipping. But now it’s suddenly incredibly offensive. Thanks for giving me someone to root against in the upcoming playoffs Chicago.
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Don’t wait for the playoffs, root against them today and tomorrow.
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Okay, but excessive. Great at is always finely measured. It’s about style, not distance. HERE is a true epic bat flip. Savor it:
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I’ll grant that Bautista had the greater flip—the catharsis of it in a playoff situation trumps all.
However, the height of Contreras’ was part of the beauty of it, particularly when you take the video clip near the end and zoom in to see the bat and ball both flying.
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Also – the Feesh made the Frankenseason playorfs last night, clipping the Borg 4-3 in ten, for the first time since 2003. I don’t expect them to go deep and if they pull the Bums in the first round I expect them to be back home fishing and hunting by next week at this time. I wish it could have been real baseball without that stupid man on second rule, but this whole season has been played on the Bizarro World.
PS – is there such a thing as “home field advantage” when there are no fans present and the seats are sparsely sprinkled with cardboard cutouts?
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Definitely congrats are in order for the Marlins. Making they playoffs a year after losing 105 games is remarkable, even in this weirdest of seasons.
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It’s my understanding from the MLB.com page that no one will have any home field advantage after the Wild Card series, except for being designated the “home team” and batting last. Looks like the ALDS and ALCS will be played in San Diego and Los Angeles, and the NLDS and NLCS will be played in Houston and Arlington, with the World Series also in Arlington. Maybe the “home team” will get to place their own cardboard fans in the seats.
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