Joey Bats Takes the High Road over a Gruff HoFer

So how did Goose Gossage start his response to the interviewer's question?

Glad you asked?

Regardless, dude was loaded for bear.

Or, to be more specific, Blue Jay:

Damn. Where's Bryce Harper when you need him?

Oh, that's right. Making peace with Jonathan Papelbon and being New School's poster boy at ESPN the Magazine.

It's a new world, Mr Goose:

 

Bautista was jettisoned by five teams -- Pittsburgh twice -- before finding himself and stardom in Toronto. Dude's had more than his share of hard knocks. Gotta respect his resilience.

The hell of it is, some of the stuff that's got Gossage all wound up is expected in other parts of the world. Bat flipping, for example, is an art form in South Korea and not unknown in Latin America.

And where does this pitch even figure into the scheme of things?

What's troubling about Gossage's comments is this: baseball's never been more multi-cultural than it is now, and with different cultures come different perspectives.

And that raises the issue of tolerance.

 

As to the nerd diss, math is a tool that can show tendencies and trends. Baseball's figured that out. It's here to stay.

Monitoring player health is more proactive than ever. More open-mindedness is needed, especially for pitchers.

Perhaps more of them wonder why they'd go even bother to go inside when batters now wear more armor than the Knights of the Round Table. They're turning to cutters and forks instead, to the point that MLB is taking a hard look -- again -- at reducing the strike zone.

And the game goes on. It's actually never been in better shape.

Gossage talks of respect for it. Looks like it's still there. And today's players -- like Bautista -- seem to show much more respect for the humans who play and have played it than we're hearing in voices from the past.