Count MLB commissioner Rob Manfred as being of the opinion that bat flips in baseball are perfectly okay.
Manfred appeared on ESPN’s Mike and Mike on Friday morning, and he backed Bryce Harper’s recent call for more expression in the modern game.
“I think it’s always been true in baseball that, with respect to what happens on the field, not the rules, but the way players conduct themselves, that each generation of players defines what’s acceptable baseball. It’s not always been exactly the same,” Manfred said when asked about the old school vs. new school debate. “I kinda line up with Bryce Harper on this. I think that we’ve got a great generation of young stars coming into the game. And just like Goose [Gossage] and his peers decided certain things were okay, certain things weren’t, this generation is going to define what the game looks like on those topics.”
Manfred was then asked if he, as a fan, took issue with Jose Bautista’s bat flip in the 2015 ALDS.
“If I were a player, I wouldn’t do that,” Manfred admitted. “The fact of the matter is, what he did did not offend me. It was a very, very exciting moment at a point in time of great excitement for that particular franchise, one that hadn’t been a great team for a long time. You know, it’s one of those moments that happens and it’s exciting, people liked it, and probably on balance, it’s good for the game.”
Harper said during the offseason that the game needs to embrace personal expression, and while that opinion was derided by old school guys like Goose Gossage and even opposed by some of his modern-day peers, but others agreed with him. I’m with Harper, personally. There are a lot of great personalities in baseball these days. Let them show it – it doesn’t automatically mean they’re showing up the opponent. The Commissioner seems to think the same.
