J.J. Hardy celebrates first home run of season with sunflower seeds after silent treatment
After hitting 25, 22, and 30 home runs the past three seasons, Baltimore Orioles shortstop J.J. Hardy has experienced a power shortage in 2014.
Heading into Saturday’s game against the New York Yankees, Hardy’s last home run came on September 5, 2013. 87 games later, the drought ended when Hardy hit his first long ball of the season off of Jose Ramirez.
After crossing home plate with the giant monkey off of his back, Hardy returned to the Orioles dugout to find no congratulatory high fives or fist bumps waiting so he did the next best thing. Hardy grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds and through himself a one-man party, until his teammates join in.
Playing along is part of the game, but for manager Buck Showalter it wasn’t necessarily easy.
Buck on Hardy's silent treatment: "It was tough for me. I wanted to hug him when he came by, but I had to go along with the program."
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) June 21, 2014
Hardy’s reaction was pretty good, but is it better than the one by teammate Chris Davis after he received silent treatment earlier this season?