Forget Jose Bautista: John Danks is the real clown

Emotion is a part of baseball. Heck, even Jose Bautista makes mistakes sometimes.

The Toronto Blue Jays masher pounded his bat into the dirt and seemed irked at himself after popping up a pitch Sunday against Chicago White Sox lefty John Danks, who had some choice words about Joey Bats' reflex.

Danks, he of an awful 2011, did something much more ridiculous by misdirecting his own season-long frustration toward Bau's seemingly self-directed chastising. Naturally, the White Sox's announcers - including "Hawk" Harrelson, that long-standing bastion of objectivity - also gave Bautista the business, calling his outburst "histrionics" and sympathizing with the Chicago lefty.

Maybe Danks should focus on his own game....

Really? If it were one of the "good guys" doing the same thing, Harrelson would call it passion for the game or something equally patronizing. (You can put that on the board.)

So what if the score was 9-2? Should Bautista be content with popping up? Whether you have two or 20 homers on the season, you have a clear right to be peeved when you make a mistake at your job.

Oh, the lessons we're teaching our kids: Sacrificing the desire to learn and perform better and care about what they do in order to ... make sure they don't hurt their opponents' feelings ... even during in-game situations in which their opponents shouldn't be paying attention to them.

What?

Was there something Bautista said while popping up the pitch that criticized Danks? Maybe, but they're grown men on opposing teams. Either way, Bautista - rightfully - shouldn't care:

"If he took it the wrong way, I'm sorry. I'm not here to make him feel good."

I hereby call a much overdue summit to address unwritten rules. They're not on paper for a reason.

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