HTH: Antonio Brown vs JuJu, MLB Needs Bat Flips, One Shining Moment

Antonio Brown Juju Smith-Schuster fued, hot takes house, One Shining Moment, MLb Batflips are the Best

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Antonio Brown is making himself look REALLY BAD

Antonio Brown is super lame for releasing private direct messages between JuJu Smith-Schuster and him. We all know that releasing private messages is a huge no-no. The only people that typically do that are facing jail time, are owed money, or scorned lovers. Antonio Brown’s loyalty and character have to be questioned at this point. If he releases private messages for no reason, he will snitch too.

AB was trying to make JuJu look silly publicly. But he ended up making himself look petty and like all the ‘cancer’ talk from the Steelers was true. How can you clown a college player for reaching out to an NFL player for advice? JuJu comes across as ambitious and driven for reaching out to one of the best wide receivers in the NFL for mentorship while in college.

I defended Antonio Brown throughout his entire career and exit from the Steelers. Now, all the things he said about Ben Roethlisberger look true about himself. AB looks like a hater with low character. Was all this because he was upset JuJu was named the MVP for last season?

I do have to give credit where it’s due. Brown was right when he said young players see the NFL a different way until they get paid. Young players who are playing well do have a more idealized version of the league. And sometimes when they do get paid, they begin to think they are the center of the universe. Now everyone knows, you better watch what you send Antonio, it might end up on his Twitter account.

JuJu was right when he told AB to “Keep your emotions of the internet”.

MLB’s Antiquated Unwritten Rules are Dumb

I could not be any more tired of baseball’s antiquated unwritten rules. Seeing pitchers throw at batters because they bat flipped or rounded the bases too slowly after a home run is lame. That is no different than if a coach put a bounty on injuring a player in football because he didn’t like his touchdown celebration.

Old school baseball people call pitchers who hit players “hard-nosed” or “tough.” I believe the opposite. How tough to you have to be to hurl a 90+ mph ball at someone’s head? The actual repercussions for throwing at a player are minimal. There is the occasional dust-up at the mound, but most times the pitcher is either warned or ejected. That is a small price to pay for endangering another person’s life and livelihood.

Hitting a baseball in the MLB is one arguably the most difficult things to do in sports. If a player is successful 30% of the time through a long career, he will go to the Hall of Fame. It makes NO sense for anyone to be upset when a player celebrates doing something so difficult.

I loved Bryce Harper bat flipping against the Nationals. The fans loved it too. They celebrated it with boos. Now, the Washington fans have a villain and rivalry with the Phillies. All of that is great for the game. The old school “get off my lawn” crowd needs to wake up and smell the roses. Baseball’s unwritten rules are for the unimaginative dinosaurs who are unsuccessfully trying to prevent change.

Fans enjoy the celebration and want to see players having fun. Maybe if the baseball gatekeepers encouraged players to have fun and show emotions, the games’ best players wouldn’t be able to walk down the street in anonymity.

The moral of the story is, play better. Stop letting people do things that are celebrating-worthy against and you instead of being upset with their reaction.

One Shining Moment is The Greatest Thing in Sports

There is no one moment in sports I have anticipation for like the end of the NCAA Tournament. For three weekends, the sports world is emotionally and financially invested in the outcome of March Madness. It all culminates when Luther Vandross’ voice starts, “The ball is tipped, and there you are...”. Every year, the short filmmakers find a way to pour all the drama, emotion, and excitement from all 67 games into approximately three minutes. One Shining Moment never falls flat or disappoints. I love it.

How Many Championships Does Bryce Harper Have To Win To Justify His Contract?

Money money money money, money. This past week, Bryce Harper, MLB’s top free agent, signed a record contract worth $330 million over 13 years. This contract became the largest contract in pro team sports history, breaking the previous record of Giancarlo Stanton’s $325M deal. That is a lot of money for one player, but that’s […]

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Can Bryce Harper Save Major League Baseball?

Last night, Bryce Harper defeated Kyle Schwarber with a few seconds to spare in the final round of the Home Run Derby. The atmosphere in Washington D.C. was electric as Harper became the 3rd player ever to win the Derby in his home ballpark. The whole contest was fun to watch as guys like Harper, Schwarber, and Rhys Hoskins were hitting 400-foot bombs on a consistent basis. Overall, it was a fun night for baseball.

Last night reminded me of a common misconception that seems to be brought up every year. “Baseball is dead.” No, baseball is not dead. In fact, the MLB just set a record for revenue in 2017, surpassing the $10 billion milestone for the first time. Paid attendance is still hovering around $73 million, which is a decrease from previous years, but still a solid number. To his credit, Commissioner Rob Manfred is trying to appeal to the younger generation. Manfred wants to speed the game up by implementing a set number of mound visits and shorter time between innings. In hindsight, I’m all for speeding the game up, but at the end of the day, it’s baseball, not basketball or football. Games are still going to go over three hours. If the action on the field is exciting, the time won’t matter.

Although it’s not dead,  baseball is struggling to connect with “millennials.” The average age of a baseball fan is 57. That is not good for a sport that desperately wants to get younger. Baseball fans know that the sport is in good hands with its young stars such as Harper, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, and Kris Bryant. The problem lies in how to capitalize on these budding stars in order to reach a younger, more casual audience. In my opinion, this is where the MLB completely misses the mark.

The best player in the MLB is Mike Trout. What Trout is doing is historic. Trout is 26 years old with 2 MVP trophies and 6 (!!!) All-Star game starts including tonight’s game. However, if Mike Trout walks down the streets of New York City, how many people would recognize him? I’m being serious. Does the casual fan know what Mike Trout even looks like? Trout is the best player in the game and his jersey sales were not even in the top 7 last year. There are factors that have lead to Trout’s lack of star appeal. Baseball is typically a regional game, not national, so if Trout is not on ESPN or Fox, it will be hard for the casual fan to watch him play. His team, the Angels, have only been to the playoffs once with him in the league. Trout plays in LA so the time difference hinders the audience on the East Coast. Plus, Trout is very laid back and concentrates on baseball in the offseason instead of building up his public presence.

To bring this full circle, can Harper save baseball? Once again, baseball doesn’t need saving. It just needs to adjust it’s strategies when it comes to marketing its stars. If I’m the Commissioner, I’m showcasing stars like Harper, Judge, and Trout multiple times a month on national television no matter the records of their team. The NBA is star-driven meaning that the casual fan will watch LeBron James even though they may not know anyone else on the Cavs. The same needs to happen in baseball. Also, the MLB social’s media policy is arguably the worst of the major sports. Fans cannot post highlights or gifs from their own accounts without permission from the MLB. That’s baffling for a league that claims they want a younger audience, and yet enforce a strict policy on social media that is predominantly used by, you guessed it, young people.

Fans deserve to see the stars of baseball more often. It’s time for the MLB to make that happen.