Carlos Gomez sides with Bryce Harper, says baseball players should 'show emotion'
Bryce Harper set off a seismic wave Thursday with his views on the dustiness of baseball's unwritten rules.
His thesis, as published Tim Keown's ESPN The Magazine piece, posited that the sport is "tired" thanks to the sport' creaky set of unwritten commandments forbaying players from celebrating anything but a World Series-winning play.
Harper's take spawned counter-takes, some of them racist, all of them bad.
Now we have another voice joining the fray: Carlos Gomez, who agrees with the wild sentiment that enjoying your success during games doesn't defile the sanctity of baseball.
USA Today Sports' Gabe Lacques published a report Thursday showcasing Gomez's thoughts on the unwritten rules of baseball. As a player whose behavior and in-game demeanor has riled up more than a few pearl-clutching traditionalists, Gomez agreed with the notion that baseball's been stuck in its ways.
"The game has been like that for so long. But when the people speak, especially when they have influence on other people, they're going to get heard. If [Harper]'s talking that way, he's going to be fine."
"Like I said before, I don't know in what book they say, you should not watch the ball when you hit it. Or you should not get excited when you strike someone out. They don't say that in the book. That comes from a long time ago and we respect that, because they come before us. But right now, we're the only sport that restricts: 'You're not allowed to do this.' I'm not saying do something stupid, I'm saying show emotion."
Gomez also spoke on two of his favorite pitchers: Miami's Jose Fernandez and Washington's Max Scherzerâtwo pitchers known for relishing their punch-outs.
"Jose Fernandez, I love watching that kid pitch...but Max Scherzer is my favorite. His emotion on the mound is like, 'OK, let me see how good you are. This is a slider. This is my curve, this is my fastball. Hit it now.' If you hit it, he's excited to face you again! That's his motivation. That's his competitiveness. He don't mean to show you up. He means, 'I'm good. Let me see how good you are.' It's the game. Everybody should be like that."
He's right. As I've stated before, everybody should be having fun playing baseball, not only because baseball's future depends on it, but because sports are fun and dangerous censorship is not.
Dan is on Twitter. He flips his screw driver after every successfully completed piece of IKEA furniture he puts together.
