Sometimes we see things on the baseball field that seem plain silly. As a fan or even a member of the media, it's hard to comprehend why certain events happen. And when they do, they're often dismissed as childish or dumb. Then someone says "unwritten rule" or "respecting the game" and baseball blogs, talk shows, tweets and podcasts go into a frenzy.
On Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, Carlos Gomez ruffled some feathers when, of all things, he flew out to center field. Gomez was upset with himself; he felt he could have done something better with the Chris Capuano down-and-in curveball. He took his frustrations out on his bat, tossing it to the ground while he muttered something in Spanish as he jogged toward first base.
When Gomez was about three-quarters of the way down the line, somebody said something from the Yankee dugout that caught Gomez's attention. Something likely along the lines of "you're not that good" or "shut up and go back to the bench", or possibly something a little more vulgar. This doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen. A player makes an out, shows his frustration and an opposing player takes issue with it.
Madison Bumgarner has a particularly strange history with this. Really strange.
Coming into Tuesday night's game, Gomez was batting .181 in 22 games with his new team, the Astros, with one home run and a .459 OPS. Some pressure was surely mounting for Gomez to contribute. And when you're slumping, you're more likely to react to outs the way Gomez did in that at-bat.
From the outside you're probably wondering why an opposing player would say anything. Generally, I would agree. It never bothered me when a guy made an out against me and showed outward frustration. I enjoyed seeing a hitter get flustered by tossing his bat, helmet or screaming obscenities when I just beat him. If anything, I felt like not only did I win, but I won twice.
But it's very likely that whoever said something in that Yankees dugout isn't a fan of Gomez. The Yankees were also losing 9-0 at the time and so it was kind of a perfect storm for an opposing player to pop off.
I'm OK with all of it. You want to get mad when you make an out? No problem. You want to take a verbal jab at an opponent because you don't like him, his team or the way he reacted to an out? I'm OK with that, too. None of it is really a big deal.
Gomez finds himself in the middle of these things more than most, but I have defended him often. I like him as a player, and most of the time he's done nothing wrong. That was certainly the case Tuesday night.
Gomez got his revenge with a seventh-inning home run. He could have taken his time around the bases, but he didn't. Don't make him a villain; he's not. As evidence of this pregame video shows ...
