ANTHONY: Let the players take care of it
Personally, I don't care whether Joba celebrates or not. Many people in sports celebrate on the field -- every sport, in fact. It's only in baseball that it becomes "showing up your opponent."
If it bothers you, David Dellucci, here's what you do:
Next time Joba does a twirl & fist pump, tell your pitcher to drill Derek Jeter with a pitch in the next inning. Then, when Jeter gets to first, your first baseman says, 'Oops. That pitch must have gotten away. Of course, you might want to have your reliever calm down on his celebrations or someone might get hurt."
So then it will be up to the Yankees batters if they want to continue to get plunked because Joba feels the need to express himself after a strikeout.
Now don't get me wrong -- this doesn't mean Joba shouldn't celebrate if he wants. Heck, he can do a moonwalk from the mound to the dugout if he wants.
People should do whatever they want in life. As long as they are ready to accept the consequences.
JIM: Keep up the enthusiasm, Joba
Is Joba showing up his opponent with his celebrations? Yes!
Is it wrong? No!
What happened to sports that we get mad at people if they DON'T celebrate and then we get mad at others when they DO celebrate?!?!
The bottom line is this is a game. Of course Joba's celebrations can offend the opponents. But you know? His celebrations are a part of who he is. It fires himself up. It fires his teammates up. And it fires up the fans. He's not playing for the sake of the opponents.
If they have such a problem with it, then don't let him celebrate. Get hits. Knock him out of the game. Then, when he is sulking in the dugout with his towel over his head, do a dance around the bases. Have fun. It's just a game!
When did everyone forget that?
Who do you agree with? What is your opinion of Joba's fist pumps?
Comments (10)
I have to go w/ Rieber here. If the opponents don't like it, have them take action. Otherwise, Joba can keep doing his thing and Papelbon can keep doing his thing as well. The game does need characters now and then. I grew up watching "The Mad Hungarian" Al Hrabosky and Mark "The Bird" Fydrich (sp?) and those guys were great to watch so I say let them express themselves but Rieber gets the nod here because if any player takes it personally, then he can go talk to his pitching staff and decided what route to take as a team.
Much ado about nothing
Who cares if he celebrates?
Is it really THAT slow a news day?
You should only celebrate when you accomplished something special; striking out a batter out in the 8th inning to end the inning isn’t something that fits that bill. I think athletes should be professional, pretend like you actually stuck out a batter before. Now people might say it’s just a game, please, anyone who thinks it just a game, check out these salaries. The game of baseball might be just a game, but this is professional baseball, not sandlot and JOBA should act like the professional he is. Joba, look at rivera and jeter. Then won the world series and didn’t celebrate like you did.
I am with Jim...
This is not showing up a player. If he were to point at the player...that's different. Look at the red sox, they enjoy showing up the pitcher, or paplbum, he shows up the batter. When I played ball, the pitcher would drill a hot dog. If you were a pitcher, the batter would bunt down the 1st base line, and run you over. These days, the players make to much money for that to happen.
Let Joba be Joba, after all if Manny can be Manny...why not! 27/08.
If you read between the lines, Jim and Anthony both agree. They are just emphasizing different aspects of the same question.
I think Joba's celebrating whenever there aren't bugs around.
Who cares?
Don't care? Don't read, don't comment, don't waste bandwidth. It's that easy, whoa.
Joba is celebrating his own personal success, not showing up his opponents like ha-ha, I gottcha (you personally Mr. Batter). It's not like striking out Delucci is a big deal per se but when Joba just failed miserably against him the night before, he can celebrate the fact he still has his mojo because he can still save games and strike out good batters. Recognize it for what it is, people, and start calling it Joba being Joba
I don't care about this at all. Players doing some sort of "celebration" has been going on for years in all sports. Take the NFL for instance. Most WR do some kind of celebration. TO does it all of the time and so does Ocho Cinco (Chad Johnson). In fact, I like Johnson's celebrations as they're pretty funny and entertaining. Icky Woods did the Icky Shuffle. The TE from KC dunks after he scores a TD. Manny Ramirez likes to stand at the plate and admire his moon shots. Reggie did that all of the time. Jim A mentioned Al Hraboski with his Mad Hungarian stuff.
The bottom line is, if the guy doing the celebrating is on the team that you root for, it's accepted. If he's on the team that just beat yours, it's not.
Personally, I get riled when the pitching on my team can't produce a decent enough outing to give the hitters a chance to win the game.
Are you listening Igwana?
It's interesting how Yankee fans think it's just fine for Joba to do this. But if this were an opposing pitcher instead? Then we'd be hearing, "Bush league...classless...not the Yankee way..."
Sure, it goes on in the NFL and NBA. I just hate to see it creep into baseball, too. It's pretty low-rent stuff.
I honestly don't see why this is becoming such a big deal in the sporting world. For some players, the only way they can keep themselves in the game is to pump their fists, while others can just go on their way back to the dugout. If a guy wants to pump his fists, why can't he? There is no rule against it. It's not bush league because he isn't doing anything to personally affect the batter or opposing team. I think if a team gets upset at the fact that the pitcher is pumping his fist, they aren't paying enough attention to the game being played. I mean a guy just struck out in kind of a big situation. Why not be upset that he struck out? I just don't understand why this is so big?