Written by The Culture Shift in Major League Baseball
If you’ve watched much Major League Baseball at all over the past few years, you’ve probably noticed a pretty big shift in the culture of the game. Not only has the game itself changed (guys are throwing harder, hitting more home runs, and striking out more than ever), but the way the game is being played has changed drastically over the past decade.
Baseball has always gotten the bad rap of being boring, slow, and no fun to watch. This has always bothered me as a big baseball fan myself. But over the past handful of seasons we have started to see this change. The new younger generation of big leaguers have taken it into their own hands and worked hard to flip the script here, and grow the game of baseball.
Baseball has been reinvigorated with more emotion than ever, celebrations that rival soccer goals, and bitter rivalries we rarely used to see in baseball. Let me tell you, it is so fun to watch and personally I am a massive fan of this culture shift in baseball.
This culture shift is often credited to this younger generation of superstars, including the likes of: Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr., Tim Anderson, Javier Baez, Bryce Harper, and many more. I agree that these men have had a lot to do with the changes we’ve seen in baseball, but I think there is one man more responsible than most who’s impact on Major League baseball is often forgotten.
I’m talking about Yasiel Puig.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve never even heard this name before, but if you were watching baseball regularly during 2013, Puig was the biggest name in the game.
Yasiel Puig, a Cuban defector, burst into the Major Leagues in June of 2013 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and immediately changed the game for the better.
Puig came in and was a star right away. In his first month with the Dodgers, he had 44 hits, a .436 Batting Average, 5 multi-hit games, and was voted the National League Player of the month. Puig went on to help the Dodgers make a serious run in the playoffs, and ended up finishing 2nd in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Yes, Puig was a great player, and had a solid 5 year stint with the Dodgers before his career took a sharp decline. But, even bigger than his impact for the Dodgers was his impact on the culture of Major League Baseball.
From day one, Puig became infamous for the way he played the game. He played at 100 miles per hour all the time, was extremely aggressive on the basepaths, formed an intimate relationship with his bat, and he loved his bat-flips.
His ‘flashy’ and sometimes ‘cocky’ style of play was something far from the norm at this time in baseball, but Puig was far from a ‘cookie cutter’ big leaguer himself. Love him or hate him, I truly believe that he changed baseball for the better by bringing excitement, celebrations, and passion back to baseball at a time when baseball needed it most.
Now flashing back to where the game is today, we see more bat-flips, celebrations, trash talk, and rivalries than ever. This makes baseball much more exciting, especially for the casual fan, and more reminiscent of the NFL which continues to be America’s sweetheart.
If Yasiel Puig would have never burst onto the scene in 2013 and made the impact that he did, I truly doubt that the game would be in the same position it is in today. We most likely wouldn’t see lineups filled with ‘newschool’ guys like Tatis Jr. and Soto, who have become fan favorites worldwide because of the way they play the game.
Honestly, I couldn’t imagine a guy hitting a walk-off home run in extra innings and not bat-flipping and yelling at his dugout as he rounds the bases anymore. This new style has become the norm and I am here for it. And it is all thanks to a 22 year old Cuban phenom by the name of Yasiel Puig.
All in all, I see this as a thank you letter to Yasiel Puig who is now playing semi-professional baseball for El Aguilla de Veracruz in the Mexican Baseball League. I am grateful for the way Puig chose to play the game, and make ripples in the culture of baseball that we are now seeing the effects of almost a decade later.
As Major League Baseball continues to adapt, evolve, and grow right in front of our eyes I look forward to the changes and can’t wait to see what the MLB looks like another decade from now.