Jose Bautista defended his famous bat flip in an essay written for The Players’ Tribune in which he compared his experience to that of being a superhero.
Bautista hit one of the biggest home runs in Toronto Blue Jays history when he blasted a 3-run home run in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers last month that helped the team advance to the ALCS. We called his celebratory bat flip the best in MLB history, though others were offended by it and complained about it.
Writing for The Players’ Tribune, Bautista defended the flip.
“It wasn’t out of contempt for the pitcher. It wasn’t because I don’t respect the unwritten rules of the game. I was caught up in the emotion of the moment,” Bautista explained.
Bautista also said the moment was so great that he felt like a superhero as he approached the plate, like Batman.
One other point Bautista brought up is that the American culture of baseball is different from places like the Dominican Republic, where the fans create a more raucous environment and passion is encouraged. He pointed out that there are some people who get bent out of shape by acts like a bat flip that they feel is disrespectful.
But for whatever reason, there’s a small section of old-school, my-way-or-the-highway type of people who never want the game to evolve. They’re the dinosaurs who believe that everybody should play the same and act the same. They usually claim that it is out of “respect.”
While we wouldn’t quite get a tattoo to commemorate the bat flip like this fan, we thought it was awesome and a big part of defining one of the more memorable moments in recent baseball history. If Bautista were not so passionate about his hit and reacting to the moment, it wouldn’t have been as memorable. So to us, what Bautista did was awesome.
