Padres' Norris offers provocative opinion on 'culture shock' in baseball
In a report examining the dynamics of bench-clearing incidents in baseball, San Diego Padres reliever Bud Norris shares his controversial thoughts on what he perceives as an ongoing culture clash between American and international players.
The report, published by USA TODAY, finds through a study of 67 bench-clearing incidents over the past five seasons that the main adversaries in the dustups came from different ethnic backgrounds 87 percent of the time.
Norris offers his assessment on the underlying factors that may lead to such conflict:
I think it's a culture shock. This is America's game. This is America's pastime, and over the last 10-15 years we've seen a very big world influence in this game, which we as a union and as players appreciate.
We're opening this game to everyone that can play. However, if you're going to come into our country and make our American dollars, you need to respect a game that has been here for over a hundred years, and I think sometimes that can be misconstrued. There are some players that have antics, that have done things over the years that we don't necessarily agree with.
I understand you want to say it's a cultural thing or an upbringing thing. But by the time you get to the big leagues, you better have a pretty good understanding of what this league is and how long it's been around.
An international player in particular who has stirred controversy with his antics, Astros outfielder Carlos Gomez, offered his perception of a double standard in regard to histrionics on the field.
"Why can a pitcher show you his emotions and you can't show yours to him? Those are baseball rules from a different time," Gomez said. "It gets to the point where, when you're by yourself, you think, 'What did I do? I didn't do anything inappropriate.' It's a bit frustrating, because all I've ever done is play the game with passion, with desire, with love, giving it my all, and a lot of people take it the wrong way."
