The Cubs games of late have been rather exciting, whether it be because of Albert Almora making a leaping catch or tempers flaring by members of the team. After a recent bench clearing, the excitement continued when Kyle Schwarber got a called strike-out that he disagreed with, said a “choice word,” and got ejected on the spot. Schwarber, looking to get his money’s worth, lost it on the umpire, throwing his helmet and continuing to argue the call.
Javier Baez attempted to pull Schwarber back at one point but Schwarber pushed him away to continue the altercation. Schwarber said he “just wanted to get the explanation of why I got thrown out and kind of argue my case. Javy was just making sure I didn’t do anything stupid, which any good teammate would do.’’ I can see that. No reason to earn a suspension. But it did put some excitement in the game and add some emotion to the Cubs’ series against the Red, which they took three of four games.
It’s good to see a team show some emotion. I had a baseball coach growing up who if you struck out and were angry, he wanted to see it. He didn’t want to have it fester and lead to mistakes later in the game, he wanted you to show that you were upset you struck out because you expected more from yourself and you didn’t want to let it happen again. Obviously, this would all have been within reason. There was no breaking stuff and no going overboard with umpires. He wanted to see you show some passion for the game and effort on your part. You let your frustration vent quickly and you moved on, leaving that strikeout in the past so you didn’t carry it with you into the next play. Every once in a while there were some misunderstandings from umpires, but that was part of the game and usually taken care of. Some emotion is good. You wouldn’t be playing this game if you didn’t love it and when you dedicate your life to something like that, you’d better show some passion with it.
Drew Schroeder 