Guess what, haters, Mickey Mantle flipped his bat too
Hold your loved ones a little tighter, baseball traditionalists, because some footage has emerged that may drastically alter your world view. Pure, naive and wholesome New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle once flipped his bat after a big hit.
Another Mickey Mantle bat flip. (via @hfield07) pic.twitter.com/gz3GL5ULXj
— Big League Stew (@bigleaguestew) January 5, 2016
Now that you’ve picked yourself up off your fainting couch, let’s discuss the above videos. They were posted by Twitter user @hfield07. The original tweets can be found here, but feature some language which we’ve edited out.
It appears both of these bat flips came on outs. This was an instance where Mantle flew out, and decided to flip his bat in frustration. While we don’t have footage of what happened next, we assume it didn’t turn into a Carlos Gomez situation.
The video is undoubtedly a win for bat flip enthusiasts all around the world. How can traditionalists argue that Gomez and Yasiel Puig are ruining the game by showing emotion on the field if a legendary outfielder did the same?
Maybe, just maybe, showing emotion on a baseball field is good. Maybe bat flips aren’t actually ruining the game. Maybe when someone says play the game like it ought to be played, you should show them this footage.
[Elsewhere: It looks like Alex Anthopoulos will be joining the Dodgers]
Emotion, and bat flips, have been a part of the game for a long time. Maybe it’s time to start embracing that part of the game’s history instead of inventing ways to complain about players you don’t like.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
