“Let the Kids Play”: Trevor Bauer vs. Fernando Tatis Jr.

MLBCameron Mendler

The Dodgers and Padres rivalry that is brewing is starting to take shape as this generations Red Sox vs. Yankees. Last weekend’s games only further proved that point. Tensions were flaring and had it feeling like it was the World Series, but it was only an ordinary game in late April. But what caught the eye of most during this series was Trevor Bauer vs. Fernando Tatis Jr. MLB has been using the marketing slogan, “Let the Kids Play” since the 2019 season and Saturday’s game exemplified that. On the second pitch of the game, Tatis took a pitch high and in over the wall in left center and when rounding first base he looked back at his bench and covered one of his eyes. Mocking what Bauer had done to them in Spring Training when he pitched with one eye closed for an inning.

 

The bench and social media loved it. Building storylines and increasing engagement is what baseball needs right now and this was perfect for it. Tatis did not stop there though. In the 6th inning he was able to take Bauer deep again this time pulling an outside cutter over the left center wall. After crossing home, Tatis pulled out the McGregor strut that Bauer often does after ending an inning with a strikeout. Again, social media loved it and fans all over the world were talking about it and tuning in to the series.

Bauer has been the biggest proponent of growing the game of baseball and allowing players to have fun and express themselves. He has been outspoken a plethora of times when players get suspended for expressing themselves or wearing equipment that goes against the MLB’s strict uniform policy. Recently, when Nick Castellanos got suspended for flexing on a pitcher who had hit him with a pitch after a huge play when he was safe at the plate, Bauer was active on social media tweeting the hashtag, #freecastellanos, and sarcastically saying MLB players cannot celebrate big plays or they will get suspended. Bauer’s activism with promoting baseball and wanting players to express themselves made his comments on the situation predictable. When asked about it in his postgame press conference, Bauer stated, “I like it. I think that pitchers that have that done to them and react by throwing at people, I think it’s pretty soft. If you give up a homer, a guy should celebrate it. It’s hard to hit in the big leagues. So I’m all for it, and I think that it’s important that the game moves in that direction and that we stop throwing at people because they celebrated having some success on the field.”

With Bauer wanting to build the storyline even more, he took to Twitter to tweet at Tatis to attempt to instigate even more engagement from fans by stating Tatis looked at the catcher’s location before hitting, which can be argued. But their exchange on Twitter was great and had fans talking again, which is exactly what Bauer wants.

Not only did he bring engagement on Twitter, he posted a video on his YouTube channel having fun and rating Tatis’ celebrations and speaking more on how this is good for the game of baseball.

This is exactly what the MLB has needed, players expressing themselves and having fun while more and more fans tune in. Viewership is up 43 percent when compared to the same time period of the 2019 season (12 percent up from 2020.) Whether you like or don’t like Bauer what he is doing is growing the game exponentially and other players are following behind by bat flipping more, showing more emotion and celebrating their success. Baseball has been using the slogan “Let the Kids Play” for two years now and it seems they are finally embracing it and the fans are loving it.

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