Blue Jays, Rangers Share Blame in Bench-Clearing Brawl

It's a feud that came to fruition in the 2015 ALDS, and on Sunday May 15th it escalated to become one of the uglier incidents in baseball history as far as brawls are concerned. It all started when Toronto's Jose Bautista launched a moonshot of a home run into the left field bleachers in the seventh inning of game 5 last October. The three-run blast broke the 3-3 tie and would prove to be the final nail in the Texas Rangers' coffin. Bautista certainly took advantage of the moment and milked the celebration for all it was worth. To say that Bautista did a "bat flip" before rounding the bases would be an understatement. The Blue Jays' right fielder stared back at the mound before lofting his bat a solid nine, maybe ten feet in the air before heading towards first. That's all well and good, there are no written rules against that, but Bautista should not be surprised that the Rangers aren't big fans of his.

Bautista's bat flip still matters in Texas seven months later

What happened yesterday is inexcusable on the part of both teams. If the Rangers wanted to hit Bautista, there is no problem with that at all. I don't like the bat flipping and the desire to bring celebration into baseball, but there's no stopping it. On the other hand, hitters are foolish if they think that they'll get away with celebratory antics without paying a consequence. Baseball is a game that is well over a hundred years old which means the expectations and standards of the game have been around longer than any player in the league right now. You learn about the unwritten rules as soon as you pick up a baseball and play catch and "The Code" surrounds every single game played. And I hate to break the hearts of the Bryce Harpers of the world but guess what? It always will.

Pitchers are not going to change. Baseball is a game that has demanded respect and class since it came into being and to think that the culture will change into one similar to football is ridiculous. It's funny to see the people on social media who were so upset about Cam Newton's touchdown dances in the winter are now advocating for more bat flips and celebrations in baseball. Is there a double standard involved here?

All that to say, the bat flip heard 'round the world started the feud, so there should be no surprise that the Rangers retaliated in yesterday's game. However, the Rangers were cowards in the way they handled it. If you're going to hit Bautista, go ahead and plunk him in the first game of the season and be done with it. Send a message, let him know what he did doesn't sit well with your team, and move on. Don't wait until you're in the seventh and final game of the season series and do it in his final at-bat because now what does that say about your team? Are you focused on winning a game? Or have you been more focused on Bautista and counting down the days until you get to hit him? Again, hitting Bautista is not the issue, but the timing of the decision to hit him was wrong.

What happened after Bautista was hit is also inexcusable. Bautista should have expected to be hit at some point and if he didn't see that coming then he's as naive as they come. Accept the bruise from the pitch and go down to first base. Don't go barreling into second base looking to intentionally injure Rougned Odor because you got hit by a pitch for acting like a fool after you hit a home run. That shows a complete lack of class and it's a bush league play considering we've seen serious injuries happen to both Jung Ho Kang of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Ruben Tejada, formerly of the New York Mets, on plays that occurred because of late slides. For that, Bautista is clearly at fault for what ultimately started the brawl.

On the other hand, Odor should receive his fair share of discipline for cleaning Bautista's clock after the slide. In the moment, it's not easy to pull yourself together and brush it off when a guy comes in hard looking to tear up your knee, but to hit a guy with a full-on right hook from hell shows a true lack of self-control. Odor wasn't hurt on the play and Bautista was inevitably going to be called for interference, granting the Rangers both the second and third outs of the inning. Instead of letting Bautista be the one who received the discipline, Odor started the ugliest brawl the MLB has seen in quite some time. For that, both players are at fault and should receive heavy discipline.

The punch that cleared the benches

Is the game of baseball changing? Maybe. It's hard to tell because it's always going to be black and white. There is no grey area when it comes to certain topics, in this case celebrations. Should players be "allowed" to celebrate? They already are. There's no rule saying they can't. Hitters just need to remember that this isn't football where celebrating is considered part of the game. Baseball demands more class and because of that the old-fashioned players will always take exception to moments where they feel like they're being shown up or disrespected. That is not going to change and fans need to recognize and appreciate that. There is a fine line between celebrating and acting like a clown, and Bautista's bat flip crossed that line. With that being said, the Rangers could not have handled the situation any worse than they did for multiple reasons. The timing and reaction to Bautista's slide were both ill-advised and childish which proves they share as much blame as Bautista for the brawl that ensued.

These two teams won't meet again this year unless they match up in the playoffs like they did last year. Should they happen to play one another again there's no telling what will happen. One would like to think that this can all be laid to rest now that they've aired out their frustration, but baseball players have long memories. We have most likely not seen the last of the bad blood between these two teams.