NEWSLETTER
The Minnesota Twins drafted (now-) 19-year-old Royce Lewis first overall in the 2017 MLB Draft to the surprise of many. Although he’s a “premium athlete,” capable of playing shortstop, drawing walks, and avoiding strikeouts, there wasn’t much obvious power in his 6’2″ 200 lb frame.
Indeed here in 2019, his second full season as a pro, Lewis still does not have a home run after 168 plate appearances and is slugging just .320 overall.
So when he lifted a LONG double off the center field wall – just barely missing his first homer of the season – Lewis strode into second base and did a couple of push-ups to point fun at himself – for the benefit of his teammates – for not hitting the gym enough to get it all the way over the fence.
Unfortunately, the other team didn’t quite take it the same way. They thought Lewis was showing up the pitcher for the double and, well, you know what comes next … unwritten rules.
the #mntwins royce lewis hits a double and does a few push-ups on second to show his team he needs to hit the weight room more and bradenton throws at him the next at-bat because….unwritten rules. pic.twitter.com/qFXATDjxhO
— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) May 17, 2019
Oh, man … I can feel those boos. And so can Lewis:
But the boos weren’t the end of it. In his next at-bat, a ticked off pitcher threw at/behind Lewis and the pitcher was immediately ejected by the (absolutely justified) umpire.
Anyone reading this website – Baseball is Fun with the Twitter handle @flippingbats – should know by now they won’t find any followers of the unwritten rules here. We just want everyone to have as much fun on the diamond as possible. And if you don’t like something a hitter does, then strike them out the next time you see them. Don’t give them a free base (to fuel your own ego), take your ball, and go home. Ya babies.
But that goes triple in the lower levels of the minors. It’s one thing to turn the other way when a hard-nose major league veteran of over a decade takes issue with something someone does in the big leagues, but we’re talking about guys in A-ball, here. They should just enjoy the game and have fun, which is why I’m impressed by the umpire. He’s helping steer the game and change the culture in the right direction from the lowest levels of the sport. That’s the only way it’ll work in the long run.
