Baseball is meant to be fun, and there's nothing better than watching grown men play a kids' sport that way.
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One of those grown men is Wander Franco, the 22-year-old Tampa Bay Rays wunderkind who has quickly became one of the best players in MLB this season. The shortstop can mash home runs and is smooth like butter in the infield, as evidenced by a play that went viral Wednesday night that some fans loved, and other fans weren't too keen on.
You've heard of the "bat flip." Now, we have the "ball flip."
Baseball is fun.
Wander has fun. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/sWXuNq9ue2
— Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun (@BallySportsFL) May 4, 2023
On a routine ground ball against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Franco snagged it on a hop and twirled it in the air like a pizza maker would toss the dough. He then fired the ball over to first to catch the runner for the out by a step.
Was this slick move necessary? No. Was it cool as hell? Absolutely. Wander Franco makes everything look easy, and this was no exception. He even came up to bat the following inning and promptly crushed a 425-foot home run, the longest of his young career. He also bat-flipped the crap out of it, and it was awesome.
The 8th Wander of the World! #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/c7QeA1IBK0
— Bally Sports Florida & Bally Sports Sun (@BallySportsFL) May 4, 2023
Meanwhile, the video of Franco's fielding play was making the rounds on Twitter, where some baseball purists took issue with it. One of those was an account by the name of 'BaseballHistoryNut,' which has more than 160,000 followers.
I’m all about having fun playing a kids game, but yea, I don’t like this at all from Wander Franco pic.twitter.com/c1wtWH88hi
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) May 4, 2023
"I'm all about having fun playing a kids game, but yea, I don't like this at all from Wander Franco," the tweet read. It's since garnered more than 5,000 retweets and plenty of replies wholeheartedly disagreeing.
Baseball history nuts: “Why does the young generation not watch baseball?”
*An MLB player does something halfway flashy*
Baseball history nuts: https://t.co/c61K2Dpuh5
— A Fan With A Mic (@AFanWithAMic) May 4, 2023
STAY MAD OLDHEAD!!! 🇩🇴>>>> https://t.co/hDDb4xCFQY
— THE KID MERO 🇩🇴 (@THEKIDMERO) May 4, 2023
These unwritten rules and the people who police them are why baseball stadiums are at 10% capacity.
Why do baseball fans hate fun? https://t.co/PmtdyyNvOT
— Dave Kluge (@DaveKluge) May 4, 2023
seriously tho , what’s wrong with this?
a basketball player can windmill dunk on a breakaway. a football player can dance his way into the endzone.
why aren’t baseball players allowed to do cool stuff? lol https://t.co/O8KxjOy2C2
— The PropFather (@The_PropFather) May 4, 2023
It's also pretty ironic that the account's profile picture is of Babe Ruth, the same guy who famously called his shot, which you could argue was pretty damn disrespectful. I guess some fans can just decide their own unwritten rules.
At the end of the day, Wander Franco is a blast to watch. He's a big reason the Rays are 25-6 and in first place in the American League East. He's inventing new ways to make the game exciting. Let's just sit back and enjoy him.
