Connolly's Tap Room

Tap-In: Is Jose Bautista ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ now at Camden Yards?

By Dan Connolly

Posted on April 21, 2016

If you’ve been to the bar before, you probably remember answering this question – or something similar to it – in the past.

Maybe you’ve spent so much time in the various Connolly bar blogs over the years imbibing in the fake swill that you won’t remember what we discussed previously anyway.

So here goes: Let’s talk some Joey Bats. We like potential villains around this dive.

Toronto’s Jose Bautista is one of the better and more consistent players in baseball. He’s got a terrific arm, great baseball instincts and hits the ball into another zip code routinely. He’s also a former Oriole – technically anyway.

He was a Rule 5 pick in 2004 who spent 16 glorious games with the Orioles (3-for-11) before being claimed off waivers by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (yeah, it was so long ago the Devil was included).

At some point between then and now, Bautista emerged as a superstar. And also one of baseball’s most despised players by those outside of Canada.

It’s apparent every time he comes to Camden Yards. When Bautista is announced, he is booed. When he catches a ball in right field, he is booed. And, on Tuesday, when he delayed things by stepping out of the batter’s box twice against Mychal Givens, who wasn’t exactly rushing to the plate, the Orioles fans showered Bautista with more boos.

Bautista has mixed it up with Darren O’Day, he’s shown up Jason Garcia and jawed with Adam Jones. And his bat flips, oh his bat flips. Baseball fans are very much aware of his bat flips.

Given the dissatisfaction from Orioles fans constantly directed at Bautista, I’m now of the belief that he has passed New York’s Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez and Boston’s David Ortiz as enemy No 1 at Camden Yards.

Let’s face it, Bautista’s a better player than those three now – and he’s on the defending division champion, so I’m sure that adds a little more buoyancy to your verbal disenchantment.

I’m not a fan, though. I just know what I hear. So let me know if I’m right.

Tap-In Question: Is Jose Bautista now ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ at Camden Yards?