I hate bat flips and most forms of sports hot-doggery.
At the youth level, it’s even more ridiculous and unnecessary. Maybe I’m a little too Norman Dale old-school, but kids should be learning and perfecting the game’s fundamentals — which do not include acting like a jackass with excessive celebrations.
Sure, enjoy the ride, cheer the big moments, soak in all the goofy goodness that comes with playing alongside a group of buddies. But act like you’ve been there before.
However.
Even I think it’s too puritanical to eject a bat-flipping kid from play with his team on the road to the Little League World Series in Williamsport — otherwise known as 12-year-old boy heaven.
Marco Rocco, a rising seventh-grader from Haddonfield, NJ, was ejected from a game July 16, during sectional play, because he flipped his bat after knocking one out of the park. The umpire reportedly cited “a safety concern” and Little League International told the family he had broken a rule.
The ejection carries with it a one-game suspension in the state tournament, which kicks off Thursday. The winner goes to the Metro Region tournament in Bristol, Conn., one stop away from Williamsport.
The Rocco family has filed an emergency temporary restraining order in the Gloucester County Chancery Division court, hoping to have the suspension overturned. The judge said he’ll decide right before the game tomorrow, leaving the poor kid on pins and needles.
Look, we don’t want time-honored tournaments to turn into some trash-talking, bat-flipping bonanza. But we also don’t want hardo officials soaking up all the fun in what should be an unforgettable boyhood memory.
“My son is distraught. He said, ‘I didn’t know I was breaking a rule, I see bat flips all over TV during the Little League World Series,’” Joe Rocco, Marco’s dad, told the Courier Post.
Furthermore, Joe told The Post that officials were being “hypocritical. They post bat-flipping on their own Twitter account.”
In one such highlight posted to the Little League World Series’ official X feed, retired Major Leaguer Todd Frazier — himself a 1998 LLWS Champion — called a 2022 LLWS game where he marveled over Nicaragua’s Luis Garcia’s post-homer celebration.
“The bat flip to go with it!” Frazier crowed. “That is one of the highest bat flips I have ever seen.”
It feels disingenuous to have such excitement be part of the festivities … and then exact a penalty on a kid mimicking the move that triggered it. The interpretation of a “horseplay rule” is murky at best.
The Little League World Series is for 12-year-olds, and this is Marco and his team’s one shot at playing in it.
A ballplayer like Marco — who, I’m assuming, has not been repeatedly defiant of umpires and coaches — has likely been dreaming of this summer his entire life.
Missing even one game wouldn’t be a lesson so much as a cruel punishment.
In this week’s double elimination tournament, Haddonfield will be facing three other teams, including Holbrook, the very Little League where yours truly spent hours watching my brothers — and playing one illustrious season of T-ball before realizing I stunk.
So I’ll be rooting for Holbrook to advance to Bristol.
But I’m also rooting for Rocco and his teammates to get a fair shot with the full power of their complete roster.
Give the kid a warning and, to borrow the sentiment of Bob Watson, in “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training”: Let him play.
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