Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Why do celebrants seem angry?

I've asked this before. In last night's wild card game Washington's 20 year old wonder Juan Soto got a huge two out hit in the home 8th driving in three runs and putting his team up 4-3, the eventual final score over Milwaukee. He makes a dumb base running mistake and is tagged out between second and third but both Soto and his teammates ignore the mistake and act as if they are angry. Watch a replay and see if you don't agree.

Now you could dismiss this as some old fart stuff but it's unmistakable in recent seasons and is never addressed, except the current orthodoxy that it's enthusiasm codified by the league in its moronic ad campaign of "Let the kids play.".

The question here is joy versus anger. I see anger. Eventually anger gives way to joy in the adolescent excessive celebration but the initial emotion by almost all the players is anger. That hardly seems like sportsmanlike behavior.

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