Can We Please, For The Love Of God, Get Some More Of This In Baseball?

Last night: Grilli struck out Stanton & celebrated

Tonight: Stanton homered off Grilli and celebrated #Rangers #Marlins pic.twitter.com/ABAHZ1GzHQ

— Aaron Carroll (@Caaronll) July 27, 2017

It truly blows my mind that this is the type of shit that has baseball purists waking up in a cold sweat.   Emotional displays, revenge, and naturally formed rivalries are just a few of things that contribute to the allure of competitive athletics. Meanwhile, the old white people in charge of the one sport whose popularity is dying a slow death amongst the demographic that actually matters - the next generation - never cease to hike up their belt buckles to their nipples in hopes of shaming the fun out of their own game.

Can you imagine a world where disdain between baseball players on opposing teams could be palpable without having to see a 100MPH fastball fly past someone's temple? I know this is a crazy concept that definitely has yet to be proven successful in other sports, but what if proud professional athletes were allowed to express just how much success - or failure, for that matter - in their multi-million dollar profession meant to them? Just hear me out here. It probably won't work, but as a last gasp to draw casual interest could the MLB benefit from changing it's focus to literally anything other than the constant repression of it's employees? I know that having an on-field personality is strictly forbidden, but maybe it's not so bad for viewership if competitive guys spark a visible feud that doesn't involve headhunting during a series of consecutive games against each other during the dog days of summer.

Then again, what do I know? I'm just a millennial with the attention span of a goldfish that doesn't appreciate the long standing traditions of a sport that prides itself on respect of the opponent...unless the opponent tosses the bat a little too aggressively after hitting a ball 400+ feet.