{"id":3672,"date":"2021-04-27T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/?p=3672"},"modified":"2021-04-26T18:54:36","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T22:54:36","slug":"let-the-kids-play-trevor-bauer-vs-fernando-tatis-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/2021\/04\/27\/let-the-kids-play-trevor-bauer-vs-fernando-tatis-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Let the Kids Play&#8221;: Trevor Bauer vs. Fernando Tatis Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dodgers and Padres rivalry that is brewing is starting to take shape as this generations Red Sox vs. Yankees. Last weekend\u2019s 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, \u201cLet the Kids Play\u201d since the 2019 season and Saturday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tatis_jr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@tatis_jr<\/a> with an electric trip around the bases. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gqZrwmbSwC\">pic.twitter.com\/gqZrwmbSwC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; MLB (@MLB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB\/status\/1386128527838220288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer pitched with one eye closed vs. the Padres in Spring Training.<\/p>\n<p>Fernando Tatis Jr. got revenge after he homered off of him tonight \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qPjBdsZVZ6\">pic.twitter.com\/qPjBdsZVZ6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SportsCenter\/status\/1386129715811999747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>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 6<sup>th<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Fernando Tatis Jr. is too much fun. Homered off Trevor Bauer in the first, mocked his one-eye move. Then homered off Bauer again in the sixth, replicated his Conor McGregor strut after crossing the plate. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xazLTTa49X\">pic.twitter.com\/xazLTTa49X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GaryParrishCBS\/status\/1386158147908382721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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, \u201cI like it. I think that pitchers that have that done to them and react by throwing at people, I think it\u2019s pretty soft. If you give up a homer, a guy should celebrate it. It\u2019s hard to hit in the big leagues. So I\u2019m all for it, and I think that it\u2019s important that the game moves in that direction and that we stop throwing at people because they celebrated having some success on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">Tranquilo hijo . <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lRe2hBLmR8\">pic.twitter.com\/lRe2hBLmR8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fernando Tatis Jr. (@tatis_jr) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tatis_jr\/status\/1386380363312689155?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Not only did he bring engagement on Twitter, he posted a video on his YouTube channel having fun and rating Tatis\u2019 celebrations and speaking more on how this is good for the game of baseball.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t 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 \u201cLet the Kids Play\u201d for two years now and it seems they are finally embracing it and the fans are loving it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fernando Tatis Jr. Trolls Trevor Bauer | Trevor Bauer Reacts\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RcoZTm5u2xc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dodgers and Padres rivalry that is brewing is starting to take shape as this generations Red Sox vs. Yankees. Last weekend\u2019s 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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4984,"featured_media":3676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4984"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3672"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3678,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions\/3678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}