After game 1 of the American League Championship Series, Fox’s Ken Rosenthal was interviewing the Yankees 22 year old phenom Gleyber Torres, who just had a HUGE game to help New York jump out to the series lead…
Ken asked Gleyber what it was like to accomplish things that not even all time Yankee greats like Ruth, DiMaggio and Gehrig have done…
Forgive me if I expected Torres to say, “Who are those dudes?” Instead, this was his response:
“The most important thing is that I stay humble and respect the game.”
Woah!!! Did he just say “Stay Humble” and “Respect the Game????”
This is 22-year-old Gleyber Torres who is supposed to be a huge part of the youth movement that promotes pimping homers and excessive celebrations… MLB has even come out with commercials championing the slogans “Let The Kids Play” and “We Play Loud.”
Subsequently, today’s game is definitely as loose as I have ever seen it…
Dudes celebrate 3rd inning singles like game winners and most homers that are hit these days have guys acting as if they just hit a game 7 walk off.
Look, you Daily Hustlers know I am all about letting the kids play…
Considering the fact that I got drilled in my first big league game for “swinging too hard,” it’s safe to say baseball needed to move away from the old guard and it definitely has done so… Yet, life is about yin & yang, and when we become too egocentric and one-sided, it sets up for complete and total combustion of the entire system as we know it.
I love to see genuine and raw emotion on the field and there is no doubt that should be championed across baseball… But we must also remember that this is a very difficult game predicated on failure, and a shit ton of it…
As I have mentioned before, the golden rule in baseball is “Be Humble or Get Humbled.”
Lastly, as much as we want to evolve and move away from previous generations way of playing the game, we must remember this game and this business don’t exist without those who came before us, and there is an ultimate gratitude and respect that needs to be had…
All this said, just wanted to thank my dude Gleyber for his respectfully humble approach… That’s it.
-EB