Clint Hurdle Calls Out Javier Baez And Willson Contreras After The Cubs Kicked The Pirates Ass

After the Cubs beat the Pirates 13-5, Wednesday night, Javier Baez said he learned a lesson. He was upset over his reaction to a pop up in the seventh inning, when he angrily flipped his bat and slowly jogged to first. Baez said a teammate talked to him about it, in a good way, and took it as a learning experience. Well, you know who really had a huge problem over it? Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. He's one of those, "play the right way," guys in baseball, which is easily translated to, "I don't like how these Latinos play our game." Oh, and that's not a stretch because Hurdle seems pretty pissed off about Baez flipping a bat in anger, but where was that same energy in 2015, when Kyle Schwarber was pimping the fuck out of his Wild Card Game home run? Anyway, here's crotchety old manager Clint Hurdle on the Cubs. Via The Athletic.

And then Hurdle brought up Baez. In the seventh inning on Wednesday, with a runner on second base and none out, Báez hit a high pop-up to shortstop Jordy Mercer and tossed his bat as he ran out of the batter’s box. “Where is the respect for the game?” Hurdle said. “He’s hit four homers in two days, does that mean you can take your bat and throw it 15-20 feet in the air when you pop up, like you should have hit your fifth home run? I would bet that men went over and talked to him, because I believe they’ve got a group there that speaks truth to power.” The bat flip did not go unnoticed in the Pirates’ dugout. “That’s just the Cubs being the Cubs,” one player said. “It could be a little less sometimes, maybe.”

That's not all though. Hurdle went after Willson Contreras too.

“The catcher, I mean … he’s a talented young man,” Hurdle said. “There is a day, he would have been thrown out as soon as he (gestured) that the ball was high. Those are things you try to help your young players with as they go through it that’s not respect for the game, that’s not the way we do things here.”

You know what else the Pirates don't do, but the Cubs do? Win. You know what, maybe Clint Hurdle is right because nothing shows respect for the game more than intentionally hitting a pitcher at the plate because he's kicking your ass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipRMgjMekQw How about being more concerned about giving up 13 runs on 16 hits instead of an opposing batter flipping a bat.

I guess the Pirates culture is to never enjoy the game and show emotion.