Said the Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland, quoted in "Rafael Devers’ homer sparks wild, ejection-filled Giants-Rockies brawl" (NY Post).
The video focuses on the flight of the ball — the typical theater of a home run with the announcer waiting forever to call it "Gone!" and the fans in the bleachers scrambling for their souvenir — so we join the showing of "disrespect" in progress. We don't see the "standing there, watching it" and what must have been the most annoying part of "taking your sweet time":
BENCHES CLEAR IN COLORADO! 😳
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) September 3, 2025
Rafael Devers crushes a home run and doesn't even get to second base before everyone is on the field. pic.twitter.com/1DbNxFR5er
ADDED: Here's more complete video that goes back and replay the full showing of "disrespect":
Eh. I blame Freeland.
Posts
60 comments:
-Brawl ? I saw a lot of shoving. No more action than getting on the subway at rush hour. They could use some Brawl-coaching from the NHL.
-Did Devers even round the bases? The video is unclear, but it looks like he joined the pushing right after rounding first.
-On the heels of recent US Open behavior, cue the pundit columns on the decline of civility in even our most genteel sports.
Bad teams need to garner respect where they can since it wasn’t earned. I recall a Baltimore Raven’s team whining the Patriots ran up tje score on them. Fake a frickin’ knee then…
…anyways, baseball players are playing the kids game…
Not a single punch was thrown.
Baseball just isn't the baseball that was watchable back in the day, with Nolan Ryan handing out fist sandwiches to all comers.
And of course, I along with most people, no longer watch baseball.
Garner alert. GARNER. ALERT.
By the way, what are white people still doing trying to complete against black people in sports?
It's not gonna happen. And you will get zero respect.
Hey, whatever happened to Scott Adams' cartoon?
Eh. I blame Freeland.
@Althouse, you live in Madison so you’re supposed to blame Trump.
The ball appeared to be curving towards the right field corner. Devers may have been waiting to see whether it was a homer or a foul ball.
I don't watch a lot of baseball but it seems to me batters have been doing the Home Run Trot for fifty years, at least. A bit of hustle to first base and waiting to get back to home plate or the dugout to celebrate would probably be the best form but there's not much unusual about watching your hit any more.
"There's no crying in baseball."
…to a capacity crowd of empty seats…
Freeland, that ship sailed a long time ago. Players routinely do stuff now that would get them drilled back in the day.
I welcome a lot of changes in baseball. Far fewer fights, managers not arguing in umpires' faces, the game is greatly sped up and is much more watchable than 5 years ago.
I looked up his (Freeland's) record this year. His 5.41 ERA is not horrible for playing in Coors Field (90 ERA+), good control and a surprisingly low HR rate, but he gets hammered a lot - 168 hits in 131 innings is a lot.
Colorado was on a pace earlier this year to lose 130+ games, so they're actually doing a lot better. Now they're on a pace to only lose 117.
"…to a capacity crowd of empty seats…"
I did notice that one guy ambling over to pick up the home run ball. Nobody else even bothered to get out of their seat.
What are the rules? Do players have to stay in the base paths while running the bases after a home run, or are they allowed to leave the base paths if they want to fight? Is that up to the umpire's discretion? Can the umpire allow the runner to complete his circuit of the bases after a game disruption? What if the player was at least partially instigating the disruption? Any rules against showboating? Those are honest questions, since I do not know the MLB rules that apply here.
I note that my line of questioning possibly goes against my own interest, e.g., New York Yankee Chris Chambliss' famous pennant-winning home run against the Royals in 1976. Chambliss was not originally able to touch all the bases safely because the crowd stormed the field. Once the dust settled, the umps asked him to come out of the clubhouse to complete running around the bases.
Yahoo: Devers' two-run home run ended up counting, even though he didn't actually round the bases before the fight broke out. He went back out and got to finish the trip once things settled down.
Good questions, Biff.
I've never seen a batter not circle the bases immediately after a home run because he joined in a brawl.
It brings to mind when Milwaukee Brave Joe Adcock was called out on the bases after hitting an apparent game-winning HR in the 13th inning of a 12 inning perfect game by Pirate Harvey Haddix.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Haddix%27s_near-perfect_game
We don't need somebody's girlfriend advising us about baseball after having been a fan for what? Five full years?
Go cheer for the best team in baseball, your Milwaukee Brewers. Buy a lot of merchandise and tickets to support your World Series Winner, professor champion winner lady? You got this! Meade would let you sleep with the top three players of your choice I bet! lolol
How soon before we see a shooting during America's pasttime at one of these games? Postseason action for those who get excited by extracurricular actions because the game itself is too slow for the gal brains to follow without... VIOLENCE? That always gets em wett, for some reason.
Dave Begley said...
Yahoo: Devers' two-run home run ended up counting, even though he didn't actually round the bases before the fight broke out. He went back out and got to finish the trip once things settled down.
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Read the rulebook.
He should have been called out.
I don’t know what stayed at the plate longer, that pitch high in the strike zone or Devers after teeing off on it. I blame Freeland too.
The whole "benches cleared" is cringe to me. Buncha babies pretending to really fight. No punches thrown? Not a fight. They didn't even rise to a slap fight, just shoving. MLB players are such immature babies. I haven't watched a single inning since the George Floyd/BLM performance art and mostly peaceful riots -- and the sports that supported that bullshite.
Marcus Bressler said...
The whole "benches cleared" is cringe to me. Buncha babies pretending to really fight. No punches thrown? Not a fight. They didn't even rise to a slap fight, just shoving. MLB players are such immature babies. I haven't watched a single inning since the George Floyd/BLM performance art and mostly peaceful riots -- and the sports that supported that bullshite.
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It's for the ladies.
Guys like meade who bring their ladies to the games and can't keep em entertained. THey need added attractions like "fights". But this is not hockey, so the ladies get excited by "push me, push me!" fights... meade got laid last night! lol
Boisterous infield gathering could be planned event to goose flagging fan interest in team and sport.
Better entertainment at Waffle House or Walmart.
The Savannah Bananas sell out football stadiums over multiple days. Every time…
Unwritten rules can only be enforced through social pressure tactics. But because many unwritten rules are dumb or subjective, they promote discord. I'm thinking about a tennis player last week who went ballistic because her opponent failed to make a supposedly obligatory gesture of faux apology when she won a point due to the ball striking the net and barely falling over. The so-called rule is a ludicrous anachronism.
Batters who hang around the batter's box after hitting a fair ball risk the humiliation of seeing their extra base hit turned into a single. Pitchers should encourage the technique. Like touchdown celebrations, such things give athletes a chance to display who and what they are. Jerks, often enough.
Kyle Freeland your salary for 2025 is $10.5 million. I think you can get over a little disrespect.
i thought, the Correct Protocol, was for the pitcher to:
a) gracefully accept the disrespect from the batter.
b) throw the ball into the his head the Next Time he comes to bat
There ARE procedures, they MUST BE Followed
Pitchers can be primadonnas. The batter wasn't really taunting the pitcher, even if his lack of urgency can be slightly disrespectful. All that being said, even though I don't watch it or many other sports, I am a big fan of the player enforced rules of etiquette and sportsmanship in the NHL.
FormerLawClerk: baseball is one of many sports in which white players hold their own against blacks and hispanics.
Everyone knows you just throw at his head the next time he comes up to bat.
Gotta touch ‘em all Biff. That’s it and Gilbar is correct about the response.
There's no blame. This is baseball. It's refreshing to see young men fight for no real reason.
If they want more people to watch baseball they will have more fights.
But it wont solve the underlying problem. There are way better things to watch and our society is too fragmented. I wonder at times what will fill the entertainment void baseball and football had in forming our common social fabric.
Right now the only game in town is Trump. We need it to not be politics. If your entertainment is built around politics I fear that makes civil war inevitable.
There has always been that need for competitive ritualistic combat as entertainment where men were able to showcase their talent and root for local heroes. It is much better when it is over something that doesn't really matter.
The Rockies should do this the normal way practiced for over 100 years in Major League Baseball- plunk the guy with a pitch the very next time he comes to the plate.
Man up, Rockies.
Good for freelander. None of that showboating and taunting. In the old days, the pitcher would've retaliated by putting the next batters butt in the dirt. You can't go "headhunting" anymore, so they resort to "Clearing the bench".
Throwing at heads has never been accepted. You go for the butt.
41-year old Charlie Morton, now with the Tigers, is in fifth place on the all-time HBP list. The most recent pitcher still ahead of him is Walter Johnson, who retired in 1927. The next batter Morton plunks will be the 200th of his major league career.
I'm getting tired of athletes' conceit and antics. It just shows they aren't playing a sport; they are making money however they can. Why watch that?
*Sigh* Trying to make baseball happen ...
Unsportsmanlike behavior on Broadway, off Broadway, in Sanctuary... you're out.
Yep. they suck.
I tell all my local pals who love baseball to switch to the Brewers.
Look at those empty stands. Sad.
My surrogate Italian family loves baseball and they used to invite a bunch of us to pitch in for a box. It was fun! I've sat in the rockpile and - I prefer the box.
Anyway.. one game, many years ago - the Rockies pulled it out last minute and won ... but most of the fans had already left.
"If your entertainment is built around politics I fear that makes civil war inevitable."
Not wrong.
What Leland said. What a meatball!
Wilbur said:
"Colorado was on a pace earlier this year to lose 130+ games, so they're actually doing a lot better. Now they're on a pace to only lose 117."
lol... Hope.
"Althouse sez
Eh. I blame Freeland."
I blame the parents. For not raising him right and for not getting him the help he obviously needed.
Bob Gibson would have sent a message during the home run trotters next AB.
JIM:
Gibby played basketball and baseball at Creighton. And, yes, he was notorious for his brushback pitches. He did NOT like opposing players.
At the end of his life, he lived in a house very close to some friends. It bordered Fontenelle Forest in Bellevue. You could see some of his trophies displayed in his living room.
Watching it wasn't the problem. His mouthing off / taunting was the issue.
From the video it looked like the stands only had about 529 paying fans who saw that home run in person.
Of course he watched it; it was way off to the side and could have been a foul. And so what if he watched it just to watch it? People need to be less neurotic.
An exultation of larks, a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese. When I saw that crowd at the mound I thought there should be a similar name for a gaggle of millionaires.
"Eh. I blame Freeland."
Agree.
"What are the rules? Do players have to stay in the base paths while running the bases after a home run, or are they allowed to leave the base paths if they want to fight? Is that up to the umpire's discretion? Can the umpire allow the runner to complete his circuit of the bases after a game disruption? What if the player was at least partially instigating the disruption? Any rules against showboating? Those are honest questions, since I do not know the MLB rules that apply here."
I asked ChatGPT, and this could be wrong but will at least get the discussion going. I think the rule relates to evading a tag, so that doesn't apply where there is a home run. I think then the only issue is that the runner needs to touch each base in order. There's a rule about "abandonment" — if he just leaves the field without touching all the based — he can be called out.
ChatGPT said the runner could run all the way out in the outfield and high five fans as long as he came back and ultimately touched each base in order.
The players both needed to control their emotions and stop acting like little children.
If our society is going to survive, we really need to get over this immature obsession of caring so much about what other people think about you. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What you're not entitled to is acting inappropriately because somebody butthurted you.
this could be wrong but will at least get the discussion going.
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This is why nobody watches baseball. Who cares but the wives of old men? How those brewers faring of late, lady ann? Do you have your tickets for the big games this autumn? How exciting to back a winner, until they lose. Then, just wait until next year! lol. You'll work out the rules with AI by then, but I don't imagine you'll be generating any great discussions.
Both are poor sports, but the guy that hits the homer is the guy that needs to take the higher road if he wants respect. He's the one that didn't follow through and run the bases.
I haven't watched a single inning since the George Floyd/BLM performance art and mostly peaceful riots -- and the sports that supported that bullshite.
Yep. When I saw 'Black Lives Matter' on the back of every pitcher's mound? I turned it off and it hasn't been back on since.
Bob Gibson would have sent a message during the home run trotters next AB.
Actually, Gibson would've drilled the next batter. Sends the message to the entire team.
That's the most pathetic thing I've ever seen in sports. Whining at the batter for being mean and hitting you out of the park?! What are you, five?!
The greatest hitters in the game, past and present, don’t show up pitchers on homers. I understand why the pitcher was pissed. But it’s enough to just remind guys like Devers that the best hitters don’t do it. Only the insecure divas. And the Red Sox are thrilled to be rid of him and his garbage attitude.
Of course he watched it; it was way off to the side and could have been a foul.
I thought that too, except it did ultimately land well in fair territory, which should have been obvious sooner from home plate. Still, Devers lean looked a bit like a golfer worrying about whether their slice would still make the fairway.
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