Dodgers: Trevor Bauer subtweeting Tony La Russa is exactly what baseball needs

You’ve probably heard about it by now, and if you haven’t, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer will make sure you did.

On Monday night during the White Sox-Twins game, slugger Yermin Mercedes extended Chicago’s lead to 16-4 with a solo shot off Minnesota position player Willians Astudillo, who served up a 48 MPH fastball on a 3-0 count.

Ohhhh nooooo. Mercedes broke the precious unwritten rules! Swinging on a 3-0 count in the ninth inning when your team is up by 11 runs?! How dare he. The Twins broadcast whined about it. Even White Sox manager Tony La Russa called out his own player for the move! Apparently, Mercedes ignored a take sign. But again, who cares?!

That’s exactly what Trevor Bauer is saying.

Dodgers star Trevor Bauer subtweeted Tony La Russa with a savage message.

Say what you want about Bauer, but the guy is a good sport. Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. trolled him right in front of his face while he was rounding the bases after hitting a home run. Bauer encouraged it in the postgame. He also made fun of himself when Jason Heyward clobbered a home run off of him in a loss to the Chicago Cubs.

Though some baseball purists think differently, perhaps we should be listening to more of the game’s top pitchers when it comes to the unwritten rules? Bauer didn’t exactly lay out the entire scenario (this wasn’t just an incident in which a batter swing on a 3-0 pitch), but it’s clear he’s leading the orchestra of players and fans who simply no longer care about what players from generations ago deemed appropriate.

It’s a different game now. The game’s older fans and ambassadors simply can’t be clinging to a set of codes that try to go easy on the opposition while, at the same time, calling the newer generations “soft.”

https://twitter.com/MikeClevinger/status/1394787997535539201?s=20

Bauer is among those leading the charge hoping for change. Everyone’s sick of the “fun” being limited because of an invisible stranglehold attempting to dictate how the game is played and how people express themselves.

MLB wants to grow the game, right? That means make it more entertaining. That means absolutely uncorking a home run on a 48 MPH meatball during a blowout. That means bat-flipping like there’s no tomorrow. That means talking trash and showboating after a strikeout.

That also means using social media to bring this to more fans’ attention. Perhaps Bauer can help make all of this go away eventually as he further influences his following. Just don’t show Tony La Russa Twitter. We really don’t need a bunch of 50- and 60-year-olds trying to bombard our mentions about “sportsmanship.”

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