Controversy continues to follow Trevor Bauer, even in Japan.
The former Cy Young winner Bauer signed with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan after officially being released by the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this year. Bauer has been chronicling his experience in Japan in a series of (often humorous) videos posted to his YouTube channel. During one recent video, Bauer called on fans of the BayStars to join him in doing a sword celebration after his strikeouts during games.
From #バウアー 選手🎥
奪三振(一部)にあわせて、皆さんと一緒に「#SWORDセレブレーション」!!🏟💪
Let's do "SWORD Celebration" together in Yokohama Stadium !⚔️#刀ポーズ #横浜スタジアム#baystars @BauerOutage pic.twitter.com/CCKwr2f9KB
— 横浜DeNAベイスターズ (@ydb_yokohama) May 1, 2023
Bauer is pitching in minor league games for the BayStars before they call him up to the major league team. He has been doing the sword celebration for the BayStars since at least last month. Here is one example shared by Bauer’s agent, Rachel Luba.
You love to see it @BauerOutage 🗡️ #sword pic.twitter.com/cnFFKs4xg1
— Rachel Luba (レイチェル・ルーバ) (@AgentRachelLuba) April 16, 2023
Bauer was doing the sword celebration in MLB. He typically does it after causing a player to check swing in a manner that makes it look like the batter is swinging a sword.
But BayStars teammate Yasuaki Yamasaki expressed displeasure this week over Bauer’s celebration and called him out in a tweet.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Yamasaki wrote in Japanese, according to a rough translation. “This is disrespectful. There are better ways to go about this.”
Here is the original tweet by Yamasaki.
https://twitter.com/19Yasuaki/status/1652976739117830144
Yamasaki, the closer for the BayStars, is a respected and popular figure. He has been with the team for his entire career (since 2015), is a six-time NPB All-Star, and has nearly 800,000 followers on Twitter.
Bauer has yet to publicly respond to his teammate’s criticism. But it is possible that the sword celebration could be seen as disrespectful to the Japanese culture.
The former MLB All-Star Bauer already had a big spat with the Dodgers (who are still paying most of his original $22.5 million salary for the 2023 season) over the circumstances of his release. Now it appears that it isn’t all smooth sailing for Bauer with his new team either.
UPDATE: Yamasaki says his original tweet was lost in translation and has tried to clarify his stance.
