What is something that occurs too frequently in baseball? 4 HRs by a single player in a single game? Certainly not.
What occurs all too frequent in baseball is the Curtain Call. The tipping of the cap as a player is encouraged out of the dugout to acknowledge his accomplishment needs to be taken down a notch. It needs to be held and higher regard and reserved for special moments. Hitting back to back HRs to help your team win a regular season game does not qualify. Especially is you are hitting .250 and your team is 10 games back from first. Doing something rare and important are what enables you to do a curtain call. Hitting for the Cycle works and so does cracking 3HRs in a playoff game. Other than that complete game shut outs, perfect games, game winning hits do not require curtain calls because the game is over and your celebrating victory and the achievement in another way.
Despite him saying that he wish he had more fun when playing baseball, Ted Williams was a guy who understood the curtain call. He would not tip his cap to Red Sox fans despite their pleas on almost all occasions.
Those who attend baseball games are not always the brightest people. Some of them vote 5 ballots for the all-star game and make sure to vote for Jason Varitek even if he is hitting below the Mendoza line or worse, he's injured. Do not give in to their pleas all the time. Stay in the dugout until you have really accomplished something.
This point was aching to be made. Curtain calls were such a rarity in the old days, and even when situations called for them a lot of guys were reluctant to come out of the dugout. Roger Maris had to be pushed out of the dugout after his 61st home run in 1961. The Ted Williams thing doesn't surprise me; he had such a sour relationship with Boston fans and media that when he homered in his final career at-bat in 1960, he flipped off the writers in the Fenway press box after crossing the plate.
ReplyDeleteThe baseball gods frown upon poorly placed curtain calling. I was ashamed for all Yankee fans when they implored Derek Jeter to come out after hitting a bomb in the 1st inning of Game 1 of the 2002 Division Series. 1st inning, Game 1! The Yankees won that game, but the Angels took the next three. The unnecessary curtain call there was a bad enough offense that the baseball gods allowed a team whose fans swore by Rally Monkeys and Thunderstix to win the World Series that year.