Bumgarner-Muncy beef was exactly
Major League Baseball is desperate for loud rivalries from spirited players. As the game has grown increasingly more regional, it needs storylines that pique national interest. Max Muncy and Madison Bumgarner delivered exactly what they needed.
Early in Sunday’s Dodgers-Giants game, catcher Stephen Vogt wanted Bumgarner’s fastball to Muncy low and away. The 92 mile-per-hour pitch missed badly, ending up at Max Muncy’s letters before clearing the cheap seats on its way into McCovey Cove for his 13th home run of the season. Muncy was the only one to put any numbers on the board, and his first-place Dodgers beat their historical rivals on the road.
What happened next was rude and delightful, in equal measure. Muncy
took a second to enjoy the obliterated ball’s journey through San Francisco before trotting around the diamond. Bumgarner, upset by Muncy’s delay — an ever-present reminder of his recent failure to pitch well — shouted at him. Muncy took it in stride, jawing back at him. After the game, Muncy said of his altercation that when Bumgarner told him to stop watching and run, he told the pitcher that if he could speed him up by going out to McCovey Cove to “get it out of the ocean.”
Sure, McCovey Cove isn’t an ocean, and the insult barely makes sense. But the disrespect is what matters here, and it was felt.
Bumgarner, a player who the Yankees are thought to be interested in as the trade deadline nears, became a textbook villain for the moment. Though he may be declining as his once-wicked curveball is defanged by age and attrition, his recent dominance is not forgotten. Bumgarner’s unhittable playoff run in 2014, which climaxed with five gutsy relief innings in a do-or-die Game 7 to secure the Giants’ third title in five years, clinched his legacy as a baseball legend. Part of being a good sports villain is being good.
Bumgarner’s also a noted crank, usually not cocky in the fun marketable way that will get him a line in a Let The Kids Play commercial. He’s also been accused of hitting people intentionally for perceived slights, most recently by Ryan Braun and Craig Counsell in a September game against the Brewers.
Despite being a recently-reformed quad-A player that redefined his career by upping his launch angle, Muncy was unfazed by Bumgarner barking at him. A living playoff god wasn’t too deified for Muncy to get his jokes in.
Throwing baseballs at opposing players should never be celebrated. A four-seamer running in at a batter’s backside is a finger slip away from causing lifelong damage to his head. Even if the pitch doesn’t collide with somebody’s skull, throwing inside with the intent to harm is childish use of dangerous weaponry.
This time, Bumgarner didn’t physically retaliate. Instead, he (perhaps inadvertently) did something remarkable — he explained his behavior in a way that is simultaneously worthy of respect and ample fodder of endless internet roasts.
“I can’t even say it with a straight face but the more I think about it, I should just let the kids play,” Bumgarner confesses. “But I just … I can’t,” the Giants ace continued. “They want to let everybody be themselves, then let me be myself.”
For Bumgarner, being himself is being pouty, aggressive, and yes, extra hurt. He gave up a massive home run and was summarily embarrassed by