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Future Hall of Famer Weighs in on Bat Flips

Bat flips and showmanship have become a hot topic in recent years, and especially of late. Hall of Famers Goose Gossage and Johnny Bench recently ripped into Jose Bautista and Bryce Harper, respectively, for their antics on the field. On and on it goes.

During Tuesday's historic exhibition game in Cuba, future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter was asked about bat flips during an on-air interview with ESPN. His answer was as level-headed as any take you'll find on bat flips.

 

"Obviously you're going to have old school players -- I'm one of them -- there's a certain way that you've played the game. The game's evolving, and you want people to show their personalities, you want them to be them. You talk about a lot of the Latin players, I think everyone talks about the Latin flair that they have, it's fun. You come out to games whether it's in Cuba, whether it's in Puerto Rico, Venezuela ... they have a good time and enjoy themselves. And you may not agree with it, you may not appreciate it, but the bottom line is I don't think they're doing it to be disrespectful. I think people are doing it just to show their personalities. There's always going to be two sides of it. I dont think you can say one side is right or one side is wrong."


Jeter was the epitome of a "play the game the right way" player. He always hustled and he never flipped his bat. He never did anything like that. Heck, when Jeter recorded his 3,000th hit and his teammates came out on the field to congratulate him, he said he "almost wanted to apologize" to the other team for holding up the game during his press conference.

 

It's no real surprise Jeter's answer was diplomatic. He never said anything remotely controversial during his playing days. He was boring in that sense. That served Jeter well; he never had any negative attention despite playing in New York for the Yankees.

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