If you missed tonight’s bench-clearing shenanigans in the Cubs/Marlins game, you can watch the video for yourself here:
For my part, I had no issue with Junior Lake watching his ball, and I didn’t think the bat flip was too bad (though I’m generally not a fan – from an aesthetic perspective – of the short walk, then flip). It was a no-doubter, and he was having some fun in an otherwise miserable game.
HOWEVA, if you’re going to do that, then you have to know there’s a chance the other team might chirp a bit, and that’s when you just have to stay quiet and do your thing. Unless the Marlins were shouting really egregious things at him, Lake shouldn’t have given them the “shhh,” and everything that came after that pretty much fell on his shoulders.
All in all, none of this was particularly bad, and most of it is explainable as “in the moment” stuff. Sounds like Lake was apologetic after the game:
Lake said he wanted to apologize to pitcher Dan Haren because he respects him. And also to rest of Marlins and any fans who saw it.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) June 4, 2015
J.Lake used Miguel Montero to translate so he wouldnt get anything messed up: "I recognize I wasn't right."
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) June 4, 2015
Lake said he realized he screwed up by flipping bat, then reacted emotionally to chirping from Marlins dugout.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) June 4, 2015
That all sounds about right. Joe Maddon was also not terribly pleased:
Maddon: "I don’t want to take any page out of "Major League" and flamboyantly throw the bat after a home run."
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) June 4, 2015
Joe Maddon spoke with Junior Lake after bench-clearing incident: “We don’t do that here, and that will be the last time you see it.” #Cubs
— Patrick Mooney (@CSNMooney) June 4, 2015
So, that’s that. In the pantheon of bench-clearing stuff, this was pretty tame on both sides. Lake made a mistake, and he’ll move on.