Controversies: Goose Gossage is a Cranky Old Man

Pictured: a disgrace to the game FREAKING LEGEND

The sides: Former Yankee pitcher Goose Gossage vs. Jose Bautista and anyone else who likes celebrating.

The background: Today in 'who the heck asked you' news, someone made the very unwise decision to sit down Goose Gossage and let him talk about what he thinks of modern baseball. And, surprise surprise, he thought it was going in the toilet. He also hates nerds, for some reason (as a self-professed nerd, I'm very insulted) but we'll get to that later.

One specific target of his ire - again, no surprise - was our very own Jose Bautista.
Here's that part of the interview:

"Bautista is an [expletive] disgrace to the game. He's embarrassing to all the Latin players, whoever played before him. Throwing his bat and acting like a fool, like all those guys in Toronto."

You can read the rest here, if you feel like tormenting your eyeballs. I'll wait.

My two cents: Obviously, as I have sworn to go to my grave defending Jose, I'm not the most impartial person on this. But I have a couple points to make.

One: Did he ask any of said Latin players what they think about all of this? I feel like if they're really that embarrassed by Bautista, they'd be able to speak for themselves, but that's just me.

Two: I don't know if he noticed, but the majority of the guys 'acting like fools' in Toronto are white. Josh Donaldson is no gentleman when he's fired up, and just today Troy Tulowitzki sent his bat cartwheeling after a walk. But none of them are mentioned by name in this tirade as being an embarrassment, etc., etc.
FYI, Goose: your racism is showing.

Three: I don't even understand where this came from. The random singling-out and attacking of Bautista seems way out of left field, and it's about something that wasn't even recent. Before today, Bautista hasn't played in a game since October. And since Gossage played in the 70s and 80s, he and his team have absolutely nothing to do with Bautista. At least Rangers pitcher Sam Dyson (while still a jerk) made comments about something that was relevant to himself, and has basically been quiet about it since.

Four: It's fascinating that Gossage is a proponent of injuring human beings on purpose (you know, an actual crime) but gets all riled up about someone being good at something and acknowledging they're good at it. Did he ever celebrate winning a game? Ever? In his life? This is not rhetorical, I am genuinely curious.

It also should be noted that no one should be surprised by any of this crap, he played for the Yankees for a good chunk of his career. They hate fun.

But the thing that confuses me is, he hates nerds, and the people he's mad at about 'ruining' baseball are the exact opposites of your stereotypical meek, wimpy 'nerds' - they're joyful, loud, and proud of themselves. And damn good at what they do. So who the hell do you want playing, Goose? Who does that leave? Aggressive idiots?

Speaking of fucking disgraces. pic.twitter.com/dyhxhPFNT1

— David, VM (@VocalMinoritySD) March 10, 2016

Oh... Nevermind. Kid was right about that last part.

The Backlash: Everyone who felt the need to respond did it in the most polite way possible - how's that for professionalism?

First, Yoneis Cespedes, who isn't a Blue Jay but was also mentioned at some point in the rant as being a disgrace because he also celebrates by flipping his bat, said he didn't know who Gossage was. He did, however, ask "He's a pitcher, right?", which should tell you everything you need to know about how tired this argument has gotten.

Then, brand-new Blue Jays catcher Tony Sanchez worked his way into my heart with the following tweets:

Russell Martin, per Barry Davis, said "I don't think we're too concerned about what Goose Gossage is thinking. Even though we respect what he's done for the game.", which is Canadian for "You were a good player but the words you're saying are stupid and you should shut up."

When Russell Martin goes home at night, he turns left at this sign. 

Russell, because he's the best, then went on to defend his teammate, saying "Jose is one of the best competitors I've ever played with. I enjoy how he goes about his business. He's a warrior out there."

And lastly, Bautista, well-spoken as ever, had this to say:

"He’s entitled to his opinion. I don’t agree with him whatsoever, but I’m not going to try to pick fights with people. They say what’s on their mind. If he had a reason to believe that, I would love to hear that, but I’ve never talked to him. I don’t know him. Whatever reason or agenda he’s on is fine with me. I’m not going to start picking a fight, let alone with a Hall of Famer."

(I took that last part to mean he'll wait until he's retired before releasing his true feelings. Hell hath no fury like a ticked-off Joey Bats).

Elsewhere on the Internet: It can't possibly be coincidental that Gossage's rant was made public on the same day as this excellent article about Bryce Harper was published. In it, he discusses how baseball needs to be more exciting, and basically says that people should be able to take credit for their accomplishments and not hate others for celebrating.

Bautista also had the following to say about Harper's article:

He's exactly right - joy is every bit as much of a human emotion as anger or aggression. And baseball players are human. (Goose, by the way, said stats nerds are taking the 'human element' out of baseball, but I bet he would fail to see the irony in that statement).

Now, the crusty old white-guy guard of baseball (*cough* Gregg Zaun) has long had a distaste for Harper because he acknowledges his own talent, can be seen as lazy, and apparently has a neck that one can't possibly be blamed for throttling. But the one thing I've never heard about him is that he 'celebrates too much'. And he's often credited with being 'a damn good ballplayer' in spite of those other perceived flaws. The talent comes first. But somehow Bautista has a temper/attitude/ego which 'ruin' watching him as a player. So it's interesting to see how those same guys will justify shitting on Jose while praising stuff about Harper. Ya know, since the two of them are on the same side of the issue.

Someone on Twitter took this opportunity to remind everyone that white-guy Mickey Mantle pretty much perfected the bat flip, and he came well before Goose's time.

But sure. Keep blaming all those pesky Latin players.

Someone else pointed out that Gossage shouldn't be in the HoF in the first place.

Also there's this, from (former pitcher) Dirk Hayhurst:

If Jose Bautista's bat flip embarrasses Latin players? Does Gossage's angry, swear riddled tirade embarrass white players?

— Dirk Hayhurst (@TheGarfoose) March 10, 2016

The Winners: Basically anyone listed above who's being classy or hilarious.

Jose Bautista is going to continue being amazing at the game of baseball no matter what anyone says, and so is Bryce Harper. Russell Martin and Tony Sanchez win too, because they get to be on the Blue Jays with Bautista, and they've made me love them today.

The Losers: Any baseballs that get pitched to Bautista after he thinks about this whole thing. Also the pitchers who threw said baseballs, the teams said pitchers play for, the fans of said teams... You get the picture.


All told, Jose and the Blue Jays took down the Yankees today 11-4 which, although it's a meaningless game, feels like some sweet, sweet, karma.

(Credit)

And you know what, Mr. Gossage, if you don't like the way baseball is being played anymore? You can kindly stop watching. I think we'll be just fine without you.

Controversies: Suitgate

Who knew a simple shopping trip could turn into such a headache?

The sides: Jose Bautista (on behalf of Devon Travis) vs. the greedy people at Sporsnet

The background: As you may or may not recall, waaaay back in May, Sportsnet anchor Hazel Mae did a little fluff piece with Blue Jays rookie second baseman Devon Travis where they went suit shopping. Travis is only 24 and didn't really own a nice suit, which is basically a requirement for professional athletes - they have to dress nice when travelling and attending events and such. It was cute, it was fun, Devo looked dapper, all was fine, and after the season the Jays have had, nobody really remembered it after a while. You can watch the clip here:

The issue: Well as it turns out, the folks at Sportsnet (and its parent company, Rogers, who - surprise surprise - own the Blue Jays) made Devo pay for his own suit. 

The backlash: Jose Bautista didn't agree with this decision, and decided that he wouldn't do any one-on-one interviews with Sportsnet journalists until the matter was resolved. Weirdly enough, the reason for the boycott didn't surface until three months later - and in the meantime, apparently nobody in the general public noticed that SN was bereft of Joey Bats interviews. Many fans, tweeters and reporters alike, sided with Bautista, calling Sportsnet 'cheap' and praising Jose for standing up for his young teammate. 

My two cents: When I first heard about this story, the whole issue seemed kind of surprising and weird to me. Since Sportsnet is the ones who are in charge of the segment, aren't they supposed to pay? Isn't that supposed to be how this kind of thing goes? The store is getting tons of free publicity from this segment, why don't they cover the cost? I'm not saying he's being *forced* to go shopping and there are definitely less pleasant ways to spend one's time and money, but that still seems odd. 

People have mentioned that Travis is a well-paid ballplayer, but I think his salary is irrelevant here. Being a girl, I also have no clue how much men's suits/shirts/ties/shoes cost, but designer clothing can run pretty expensive. Someone pointed out that since it was 'off the rack' and not custom-made by a tailor, it would have been cheaper, but that's still a relative term. Also you can't tell me Devo's suit didn't require some alterations. He's short and extremely muscular - especially in the, erm, thigh area - I'm pretty sure that's not a standard size. 

Rogers/Sportsnet makes money off of him regardless, would it kill them to pony up for a suit, especially one he wears while representing their organization? They're taking advantage of him by proposing the shopping segment and then making him pay for it, when he could have just as easily done the same thing off-camera on his own time or with a friend. Everyone profits from this except Devo, and that's not right. 

As for the Bautista angle, I'm not even sure how he became involved in this. Maybe Devo was kind of disgruntled about having to pay so much money? He might not have even complained at all, could be Bautista just heard about how the transaction occurred and thought 'that's not right, he's being taken advantage of.' We'll probably never know. But I love the way he handled it. Travis is a young kid, he can't really complain without raising some eyebrows about his attitude. Bautista knows that. He carries some clout with Sportsnet since he's one of the biggest stars on the team, so if anyone could make them do the right thing, it would be him. If anyone says this man isn't a leader, I'll fight them. He saw something that he felt was wrong, so he used his influence to help make it right. 

He didn't make a big fuss about it, either, just played the stubbornly silent waiting game until the other side caved (which I'm assuming they did, given that he did an unrelated on-air interview with Barry Davis the same day the story broke). It was probably the public criticism that did Sportsnet in. I love the fact that Bautista didn't comment on the story when asked (by other media members) about it, other than to confirm that they had their facts straight. Because ain't nobody writing inaccurate headlines about Joey Bats. 

The winners: Well, eventually it got resolved, so I'm assuming Bautista and Travis won in the end. Travis gets a free suit and still looks like the humble human being he is. 

Bautista also wins because he comes across looking like a hero (something not undeserved). In a third win, Bautista got three months free of answering the same bloody questions over and over again. Lucky him. 

The store/designer still get paid for the suit either way, and I'm sure they got extra business somewhere along the line because of this segment, so as annoyed as it makes me, I guess they win too. Stupid capitalism. 

The losers: Rogers and Sportsnet had one of their star athletes be mad at them for three months, so that can't be fun. They also were on the receiving end of ire from more fans (aside from the ones that already hate them for renaming the beloved Dome and building a statue of Ted Rogers... Seriously.) I'm not including paying for a ~1000$ suit as a loss for a billion-dollar company. But the bad PR is punishment enough. 

Us viewers lost out on three months' worth of Joey Bats quotes. Sad face. However, that would have been a bigger deal if the team wasn't doing so well. And call me a sap, but I kind of liked seeing the 'bit players' get some more screen time instead. 

How it should have gone down: In a perfect world, the network would have not been cheap bastards and paid for the damn suit themselves, and in return for all the publicity, the store would have given them a discount. The store then gets to proclaim "Hey! Toronto Blue Jay Devon Travis shops here!", which is probably what happened anyways. 

The ironic thing about all of this is that Devo is so sweet and gracious that he probably would have spent an hour of airtime profusely thanking whoever paid for the clothes. That makes good TV, and the network gets footage of that which they can use whenever they feel like for the rest of his life. And we the viewers get to see that footage. Everybody wins.

I mean hell, I'd buy Devo a suit if it meant I could hang out with him for a day. Tuition is overrated.

Unanswered questions: Was the issue actually resolved? Bautista gave an on-air interview the day of the story, so that's kind of a quick turnaround, but it may have been some kind of goodwill gesture on behalf of the network to make it seem like everything was fine. Maybe they made an agreement not to bring it up. I know Barry Davis, a Sportsnet employee, definitely wasn't going to. 

Didn't I read something about Mark Buehrle taking the rookies every year to get their first suit? What happened to that? Maybe he only does it with the pitching staff. But that's some serious leadership too - and he doesn't do it for publicity, either. 

Also, remember that time Edwin Encarnacion blew off Barry Davis after hitting a walk-off home run? Everyone says it's because he's self-conscious about his English, but I'd like to think it's because he was showing solidarity with Bautista over the suit thing. I can dream, right? 

@BlueJayHunter a nice addition might be Edwin denying Barry pic.twitter.com/XHWq1XvBrS

— Seb FoxAllen (@purpledocket) June 10, 2015

If there's one thing about this we can all agree on, it's that Devo is adorable. And he looks damn good in blue.

And a HOUNDSTOOTH tie?!! Excuse me, I accidentally drew blood because of how sharp this is. That offer of shopping still stands, anytime.