Excessive Celebrations: The Walk-Off Home Run
There are probably about 10 common dreams boys grow up holding on to. There’s the one about the hot teacher and/or neighbor. There’s the one about striking it rich before you’re 16…then 60 becomes 18…18 becomes 21, and so on. But perhaps the biggest dream of them all is the walk off home run.
You know the scenario: It’s the bottom of the ninth. Two outs. Men on base. And there’s only one hope for victory; and that’s hitting a 100 mph fastball 420 feet over a fence.As the ball sails over the wall you break into your trot. Dream realized. You cross home plate. Your buddies waiting. Celebratory chaos ensues.
Several hundred men are given that chance every year. But most of us are hangin’ with Langston Hughes, A Dream Deferred.
The thing about the walk off home run is that the hoopla around home plate seems to have become excessive. In fact, you no longer even need to hit the home run. A game-winning sac fly will do just fine. It seems that men in uniforms are looking for any excuse to jump up and down on one another.
I’m glad Jack of All Blogs is not alone in this thought. Look at this e-mail that we received from a friend of the blog!
I just caught a highlight of A-Rod’s walk off in yesterdays’ Yankee game, and I don’t know if I am annoyed as much as I am amused that every team in baseball celebrates the walk off the same exact way. I don’t know who started it. I know it didn’t happen when I was a child. My only guess is that it started in a post-season game that was hard fought and was a perfectly natural response after an 11, 12, or 13 inning nail-biter.
Anyway, it needs to stop.
I’m not saying that the team needs to stay in the dugout, but this circling the plate, leaving a little opening for him to duck through so they can all pound on his helmet in a scrum….so f*cking gay!
Not to mention, tired. Like the YMCA guys, Cotton Eyed Joe, or the one player having a ‘special individual five’ for all his teammates. The reason this game that I once loved so dearly is so boring to me is because, well, they all let it get boring.
Amen, brother! We think it’s time that the walk off home run walks off into the sunset. What say you?
