One of the more unusual and admittedly entertaining moments during the 2013 postseason occurred when Scott Van Slyke of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Joe Kelly, then of the St. Louis Cardinals, engaged in a standoff immediately following the national anthem at NLCS Game 6.
The staredown, as it were, played out for several minutes, including a national television commercial break and pregame warmups, and seemed poised to continue through the game's first pitch before home plate umpire Greg Gibson interjected and ordered both players to the dugout.
For a one time only event, it was harmless and good for a laugh. But we can't say it's a one time only event, because It was brought back by Aaron Barrett of the Washington Nationals and Brandon Barnes of the Colorado Rockies in 2014. And now it's back in 2015 too, thanks to Barrett and a group of Philadelphia Phillies.
Actually, the Phillies were involved in perhaps what should be considered a practice run on Thursday in Colorado, and then again with Barrett's Nationals on Friday, and this one was epic.
Here's how James Wagner of the Washington Post described it.
It's all fun and games until someone irritates Max Scherzer.
Good news for Barrett. By the time the game ended, Scherzer was in a much better mood after the Nationals extended their season-best winning streak to six with a 2-1 victory.
As for Barrett, he's 2-0 in standoffs and 3-0 as a reliever in 70 appearances.
Again, this is all in good fun, but the act does run the risk of wearing thin quickly if overused and obviously if it threatens to interrupt play. We strongly encourage those involved to exercise good judgment going forward so this practice doesn't veer toward overdone and unwelcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment