Alonso decides to ‘Buck’ ugly trend
DID THE Buck stop there? Pete Alonso on Wednesday hit a monster homer, running all the way to first, no posing or bat-flipping. I suspect that Buck Showalter had something to do with that.
Despite Rob Manfred’s pandering blessings to attract kids with acts of rank self-aggrandizement and MLB Network’s latest edition of the month’s “Best Bat-Flips” conspicuous modesty makes players easier to root for.
If Manfred had the courage of his convictions he’d be seen surrounded by kids, teaching them to pose at the plate then perform bat-flips.
The Yankees on Wednesday had 6-year-old Dominick Krankall and family as their guests. The kid from Connecticut had been burned along the top of his face when struck by a burning tennis ball reportedly thrown by another kid.
He was greeted on the field before the game by Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes and Jordan Montgomery. They played catch, not bat-flip.
➤ Once upon a time, pitchers who received standing ovations en route to the dugout would acknowledge paying customers’ appreciation with a touch of the brim of his cap or even a quick wave. No more, as that has apparently been deemed uncool.
Cortes, removed with one out in the eighth after allowing his first hit on Monday, received such an ovation. Cortes seems like a good guy, but he ignored it.
Maybe it was because no-hitters and one-hitters in the age of analytics have become a nickel-a-dozen. In Monday’s game, in six at-bats, the designated “hitters” struck out four times.
➤ How did baseball broadcasters get by before “walk-off ” became the one-size-fits-all for game-ending hits, walks, sacrifice flies, errors, passed balls, wild pitches, balks and whatever else ends it? Tuesday, before and after Aaron Judge hit his game-ending homer, YES’s Michael Kay spoke the term, and in several tenses, seven times. He actually conjugated the verb walk-off.
➤ Spaniard Sergio Garcia has made more than $73 million in golf prizes, most of it on the PGA Tour. Courtesy cars, volunteers assisting him here, there and everywhere, big endorsement deals with U.S. companies including club-maker Taylor Made, beautiful home in Florida.
Last week, while whacking weeds as he looked for his ball, he cursed out the PGA Tour, claiming he can’t wait to be done with it, perhaps for all that just-show-up Saudi appearance-fee loot. What a guy!
➤ Reader David Distefano: Ethereal Road, the Derby horse scratched then replaced by 80-1 winner Rich Strike, “is the Wally Pipp of thoroughbreds.”