Ending the Bat Flip Debate in Two Parts

Bat Flip Mania is tearing the baseball world asunder. You’re either normal and like—or are at least mostly unperturbed by—bat flips or you’re a crank. It’s a spirited debate to be sure, but luckily we can deconstruct it once and for all in two parts. First, there is the tweet above, and Ryan Madson’s words in it.

Madson is a 10-year major leaguer who spent most of his career with the Phillies and about a third of it in total recovering from arm injuries. He’s a pretty good pitcher and as a pitcher is unsurprisingly not the biggest fan of the bat flip. He’s not frothing at the mouth or anything, but it’s still pretty crazy to read something like “[baseball’s] more of a professional sport.” Like, the man is saying there are degrees of professionalism across the sports world. What?

Anyway, that’s kind of weird and silly, but that’s one side of the argument. The other side of the argument is the below Vine of Anthony Rizzo, uploaded by the Chicago Cubs.

Hey, look at that! Looks like someone’s having some fun. Weird.