Keep On Celebrating: Mejia Edition

photo by CeetarI realize this is one of those debates that everyone is firmly entrenched on either side, but here it is cropping up again. Jenrry Mejia’s post-save celebrations have often been somewhat demonstrative and his most recent save over the Nationals tipped the scale enough to bring up the tired old ‘hey, that’s now how things are done!’ argument.

 

I can’t quite figure out why anyone cares. There are no style points in baseball and some players have always worn their hearts on their sleeves. There is no code of conduct and there’s no reason to try to force players to play by your set of standards. As Mejia said himself, if you don’t want to see him save a game…well, beat him.

 

It’s even more ridiculous for this to have spun a media cycle where crotchety beat writers, who hate when anything interesting happens after the 6th inning, whipped the story into enough of a frenzy that Terry Collins actually had to address it with Mejia.

 

There are the entertainers, we are the entertainees. Why get up in arms when they do just that? You don’t tell the magician to tone down his flourishes, don’t tell Brad Pitt how he should portray his character. Let’s stop trying to bland-down the game of baseball.

 

Let’s stop worrying about how much emotion the players show, and worry more about getting Mejia more opportunities to be celebrating a victory.