Throwback Thursday: Players From the 1980's (Gasp) Actually Did Bat Flips

Rick Sutcliffe was on Mike & Mike this morning talking about the Jose Bautista bat flip and said that “back in the day, he wouldn’t have done that. With a lot of us on the mound, he wouldn’t have made it around the bases with something like that. But to be honest with you, I have no problem with that in this day and age.”

So let’s crank up the old archive machine. Bat flips are a thing of the youtube generation, right? Reggie Jackson never admired a home run for a long time and then disdainfully cast aside the bat.

I found, for example, this reference on a photo in a Lexis search from May 22, 1987 game. “Dale Murphy flips bat away as he watches second of his two home runs Friday clear the leftfield fence at Wrigley Field.” However, I can’t find the actual photo or the newspaper archive where the photo appears, so I can’t tell how accurate that description is from a game where Murphy hit two home runs against Sutcliffe’s Cubs.

The funniest description easily goes to this account from Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times of a game involving Pedro Guerrero of the Cardinals in 1989, with Bob Walk.

"When former Dodger Pedro Guerrero hit a home run Tuesday for the St. Louis Cardinals off Bob Walk of the Pittsburgh Pirates, he flipped his bat and took 37.2 seconds to get around the bases. He was mad at Walk, who struck him out in his previous at-bat by throwing five consecutive curveballs even though the Pirates led, 5-0, at the time.“I know he didn’t like what I did, but I didn’t like it when he threw five breaking balls to me,” Guerrero said. “Now we’re even.”Said a confused Walk: “I apologize for the breaking balls. Next time, I’ll throw it underhanded.”"

Bob Brenly’s name comes up with a keyword search for bat flips. Brenly is the epitome of playing the game the right way and being old school, managing the Diamondbacks to a World Series title and broadcasting games for the last decade.

From an AP account in 1986:

"After Scott Garrelts, 13-9, blanked the Giants over the final two innings, Brenly connected for his 14th home run and deliriously flipped his bat before dancing around the bases.“That’s as good a demonstration as you’ll see of a guy not quitting when everything is going wrong,” said Giants Manger Roger Craig. “The guys on the bench had a feeling he was going to do it in the ninth.”Brenly was good-natured about the errors spree, pleased that the fans cheered him when he batted, and thankful that Craig switched him from third base to his familiar catcher’s position in the eighth."

Joy? Happiness and dancing and deliriousness? Why I never.

Those are the written accounts, but some were just part of the fabric. I present Bash Brother era Ricky Henderson.

But the best bat flip, given the moment and the actions, was easily Tom Lawless off Frank Viola in the 1987 World Series. Yes, the biggest violation of the unwritten rules when it comes to bat flips was by a St. Louis Cardinals utility infielder back when Rick Sutcliffe played.

Can you imagine what Jonathan Papelbon would have done to Lawless if he was his teammate? That ball cleared the fence by mere inches, and Lawless never ran. It was his second career home run. I mean, that’s amazing.

Lawless, who was the interim manager for the Houston Astros last year, said at the time, “I figured I’d get criticism after I saw the replay of what I did, but I can assure you that it wasn’t anything planned or premeditated. There’s no way they’d ever thought I’d hit it. There’s nothing I can do about it. They can try to knock me down if they want to.”

Here were some quotes from the Twins the next day:

Kent Hrbek: “when the ball goes out three inches above the fence, you don’t stand there and watch it.”

Don Baylor: “If I was a pitcher, the next time up I would hit him right here (pointing to the temple).”

But, he did get around the bases. In all seriousness, the pitcher vs. hitter matchup is one of the most intense and emotional available in all of sports, when a home run occurs. There’s really no event like it, in a head-to-head situation where teammates don’t come into the mix at all (maybe a penalty kick showdown between a keeper and shooter in soccer?). It’s sports, it’s emotional. Hitters are sometimes going to react emotionally. Pitchers will react emotionally and be pissed to. But until we ban fist pumps after strikeouts, and all other forms of celebration, let’s just let people be human. And not pretend like it was so much different back in the old days.