Jose Bautista Isn’t a Disgrace to the Game, Goose Gossage is Just Out of Touch

As outlandish and ridiculous as they may be, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But that doesn’t mean particular people can’t be absolutely dead wrong on certain issues.

Case in point, Goose Gossage and his tirade against Jose Bautista and the so-called “nerds” ruining the game of baseball. Surely, most have read the ridiculous quotes by Gossage, but just in case you haven’t …

“Bautista is a f—ing disgrace to the game,. He’s embarrassing to all the Latin players, whoever played before him. Throwing his bat and acting like a fool, like all those guys in Toronto. Cespedes, the same thing.”

Wait … “all those guys in Toronto”? In a weird way, I guess that’s a compliment to all the Blue Jays players, but I digress.

This is probably one of the most spontaneous and biggest anti-Sabermetric and anti-celebration rants I’ve ever read. By the sounds of it, this subject really touched a nerve with Gossage here, otherwise why would he go into an expletive-laden rant?

It’s not just the fact that Gossage deemed it necessary to condemn guys like Jose Bautista and Yoenis Cespedes, but Gossage also inexplicably attacked the advanced analytics and Sabermetric crowd.

Lucky for “nerds” everywhere, every Major League team now employs an analytics department, so those lucky kids can escape their parent’s basements for eight hours a day. Analytics are legit; it’s not voodoo or witchcraft … although Jose Bautista would know best about that.

It’s very apparent that this is an old school vs. new school argument and no matter how hard you try to convince these old players, the clearer the divide becomes. There’s just no talking sense into guys like Goose Gossage.

Today may be a progressive society, but baseball is still very much a traditional sport. These comments by Goose Gossage reiterate the fact that there remains a huge generational and cultural divide in many sectors of the game.

Here’s the most telling part of the whole thing. According to the ESPN interview, Gossage went off on this rant only after being asked about Aroldis Chapman; who, by the way, was allegedly involved with domestic violence and weapons charges an incident this offseason.

And yet Jose Bautista is the one who’s a disgrace to the game? Right.

Part of this may just be the pinstripe entitlement theory; that the Yankees always have and always will play the game the right way, and thus they’re completely immune to any criticism whatsoever. The truth is the Yankees have had some pretty deplorable people on their roster at various times.

This may all just be a waste of time as Goose Gossage is clearly a man who’s set in his ways. For whatever reason, Gossage is convinced that guys like Jose Bautista are somehow ruining the game with their exuberance and flair for the dramatic.

But Jose Bautista is not a disgrace to the game … he’s a gift to the game. Bitter onlookers like Goose Gossage can either get on board with this new brand of baseball or get left behind.

Image via Getty Images Sport/Jim McIsaac