Blue Jays Morning Thoughts: Did Orioles expect Jose Bautista not to gloat?

More bad blood boils over between AL East rivals Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. However, the questions of professionalism are misplaced and hypocritical at best.

There is an unwritten rule in baseball that says if you gloat or show-up an opponent, the receiving team is likely to reciprocate by throwing at or plunking one of your batters. However, there is a catch-22 involved with said rule, perhaps of the chicken and egg variety, when a batter takes a pitcher deep after he gets thrown at. Apparently in that case, the expectation is that the batter will just take his triumph and move on.

At least that is how the Baltimore Orioles appear to feel about the situation.

For the second consecutive match-up between the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays, an Orioles pitcher threw at or behind Toronto slugger Jose Bautista. And for the second consecutive time, Bautista responded in kind by taking the next pitch deep for a home run. No intimidation, just straight up mano-a-mano schooling. For those that missed the action, it looked a lot like this:

Apparently, the Orioles weren’t very happy with Bautista taking his time admiring his response, calling out the Blue Jays right-fielder for professionalism after the game.

"“All right, you hit the home run, but he’s got 200-some in his career, it’s not his first one, it’s not a walk-off, it’s in the middle of the seventh inning,” Jones said. “Hit it. … Don’t walk halfway down the line. Respect the game, and I know he does, but at that moment right there, he didn’t. And when it happens to my team, I’m going to take offence to it.” (h/t Jamie Ross, MLB.com)"

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I’m sorry, but as a fan of the game, and regardless of affiliation with any particular team, I have a hard time understanding how one man can stand on the soapbox and preach professionalism when he pitchers are headhunting with a very specific target in mind. It isn’t hidden, it is right out there in your face to see it. Orioles pitchers have a beef with Jose Bautista and rather than show him up on the baseball field, they choose to throw at him instead. When that happens, professionalism is thrown out the window and machismo takes over.

"“You throw at me and I’m not going to forget,” said Bautista. “And if I get you right after, I’m going to enjoy it, and I did. I have no regrets about it.”"

Sure, Jose Bautista could easily make less of a circus show of his home run. He could also have taken things a step further and charged the mound. Instead, Bautista responded in the manner that these things should be settled, on the field and within the game, in a manner where the only thing that gets hurt is someone’s pride.

If Adam Jones wants to preach professionalism, then he should pull his pitchers aside and tell them where this game is won or lost. Perhaps he should respond with his own bat and fire up his teammates to respond in kind, but calling out a player for hot-dogging after your teammate threw at him is just misplaced anger. Control your boys and Bautista will have nothing to gloat over.

Or simply put, take away the egg!

Next: Game Recap: Blue Jays clobber Orioles behind the long-ball

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