Hall Of Famer Goose Gossage Says Jose Bautista 'Is A Fucking Disgrace To The Game'
On the same day that Bryce Harper’s quotes made the rounds for him saying that “baseball is tired” because “you can’t express yourself,” Hall of Famer Goose Gossage had some choice words for players like Harper, who like to express themselves in the batter’s box. Players like Harper, but more specifically, players like Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays and Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets.
“Bautista is a fucking disgrace to the game,” Gossage told ESPN. “He’s embarrassing to all the Latin players, whoever played before him. Throwing his bat and acting like a fool, like all those guys in Toronto. [Yoenis] Cespedes, same thing.”
And this is kind of what Harper is talking about. These old-timers just played in a different era. That era is over. It’s been over. It’s the dumbest thing in professional sports. You can do dances in the end zone when you score a touchdown, hockey players have huge group celebrations when they score a goal, and basketball players can hang on the rim with their nuts on the back of your neck when they dunk on you. But if you hit a home run in baseball, you better put your head down, don’t smile, and run the bases like a gentleman! Fuck that. Why can pitchers pump their fists and stomp around the mound when they get a big strikeout, but batters get a fastball under their chin (or an expletive-laced rant from a 64-year-old, grumpy Hall of Famer) if they pimp a home run?
Gossage just seems like an angry old man, because he didn’t stop there with his complaints. After he went off on Bautista and Cespedes, he shifted his focus to the trend of there being younger executives in baseball front offices.
“It is a joke,” Gossage said. The game is becoming a freaking joke because of the nerds who are running it. I’ll tell you what has happened, these guys played Rotisserie baseball at Harvard or wherever the fuck they went and they thought they figured the fucking game out. They don’t know shit.”
“Ryan Braun is a fucking steroid user. He gets a standing ovation on Opening Day in Milwaukee. How do you explain that to your kid after throwing people under the bus and lying through his fucking teeth? They don’t have anyone passing the fucking torch to these people. If I had acted like that, you don’t go in that fucking dugout. There are going to be 20 fucking guys waiting for you.”
I look at it this way. Do I want players flipping their bats 50 feet in the air for every home run that they hit? No. That’s absurd, and players know that. But there’s a time and a place for it. To come at Bautista for flipping his bat after hitting the second most important home run in the history of the Blue Jays franchise — get the fuck out of here. It was a huge moment. The crowd was insane. He’s been in Toronto for eight years. I guarantee you that him flipping his bat wasn’t even a conscious decision; he just acted in the moment without even thinking.
And ya know what, Goose? People have been talking about it ever since. If you want what’s best for the game of baseball, then you want players like Jose Bautista creating buzz on the game’s behalf. And that bat-flip that you claim to have made him a “disgrace to the game” of baseball? That was probably the most talked about moment of the entire postseason. It’s not the 1970’s anymore. The game is changing, and players being able to express themselves in the way that Bautista did is going to attract more fans. As an ambassador to the game, that’s all you should care about, regardless of whether or not you agree with how players like Bautista are attracting those fans.
