Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons Catching Heat For Saying "Maybe We Should Wear Dresses"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a disputed defeat Tuesday night, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons is certainly no fan of baseball’s new rule on breaking up double plays. “Maybe we’ll come out wearing dresses tomorrow,” Gibbons said. “Maybe that’s what everybody’s looking for.” The recent change took all of three days to undoubtedly swing the outcome of a game this season, giving Logan Forsythe and the Tampa Bay Rays a 3-2 victory over Toronto that left Gibbons fuming. With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth inning, Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion hit a grounder to third. After taking a throw from Evan Longoria for the force at second, Forsythe made an errant relay to first that appeared to allow the go-ahead run to score for Toronto. Rays manager Kevin Cash asked for a replay review, claiming Jose Bautista violated the new “Chase Utley Rule” governing slides on potential double plays.

2 days into the season and we’ve got major drama with the Chase Utley Rule. Jared “Tommy Shelby” Carrabis already dove into a lot of the issues we’ve seen at second base. Personally, I dont have a problem with last nights call. I can understand the outrage – the rule was set in place to prevent injuries like Tejada’s broken leg. Obviously there was no risk of injury on this one. So it seems a little silly to cite the Chase Utley rule when we’re talking about knocking into someone’s foot with your hand. But reaching out and swiping someone’s foot like that while they turn a double play absolutely affects the throw. Its like tapping someone’s elbow on a jumper. Its not a dangerous foul. Nobody is getting injured. But it absolutely affects performance and I think it should be called. I dont want to call Joey Bats “dirty” in the same way as Chase Utley. But it was kinda like Gary Payton stepping on your foot or pulling on your jersey. A slick attempt to break a rule and gain an advantage, and he got caught. When you make a deliberate motion like that and the throw goes wild its gonna get called every time, and it woulda gotten called before Utley ever murdered Ruben Tejada.

Anyway, on to the Gibbons issue. Everyone up in arms about the “dresses” comments. I’ll leave it up to your imagination who is freaking out about it. Its the usual suspects we always see on these issues. It happened when Isles fans called Sidney Crosby “Cindy” and “Princess Crosby.” Last night the Royals played “American Girl” during Noah’s warm ups – they’re mad about that as well. I dont understand why these writers think that pro sports is one of their “safe spaces.” I dont get why they think that grown men getting paid millions of dollars to do nothing but win are going to be concerned about political correctness and equal rights. In the heat of the moment, at the peak level of competition, that is probably the last fucking thing on their minds. Is it sexist? Yes it is. Anytime you say one sex is inferior to the other, its sexist. Would Dottie and Kit Henson like to have a word about what girls in dresses can do on a baseball diamond? Yes, they probably would. But guess what guys? Nobody fucking cares! I’ve said it a million times – trash talk where you call your opponent a girl is as nice as its going to get in sports. Thats bare fucking minimum. You cant take sports and athletic competition and turn it into this perfectly friendly little world. There are going to be people getting animated. There are going to be people talking shit – being…GASP…mean!…to try to get an edge. Gibbons used a euphemism to imply soft baseball and whether or not that offends you is pretty irrelevant because its going nowhere.

And you know what I find most interesting – I bet most of the competitive women in sports wouldnt cry about this. I bet if you said this kinda shit to Jessica Mendoza her reaction wouldnt be “Thats sexist and rude!” it would be “Let me show you what the fuck a girl can do with a baseball bat in her hands.”