Agree to Disagree
David Price and Mike Trout are just two dudes jawing about juiced baseballs online
Juiced baseballs are the worst-kept secret in sports. In fact, they’ve existed for so long and with such little denial from the MLB, that they don’t even qualify as a secret anymore. No conspiracy. No theory. They’re just a fixture of the modern game, plain and simple. But as home run (and consequently strike out) numbers soared and exit velo and distance figures climbed into Bryson DeChambeau real estate, it became clear the MLB’s superball era was not built to last. Something had to eventually give, and on Monday it did, with the league announcing plans to “deaden” the balls for the 2021 season in what was as close as to an admission of guilt as you will ever see from the Manfred Mafia.
For the most part, this is good news. Better balance of play should mean better baseball. Sure, home runs are fun and good, but less guys uppercutting for the fences should mean more balls in play, should mean more baserunning, should mean more athletic shortstop play, and so on. There are, however, two sides to every coin, especially on Twitter when anyone will argue anything purely for the thrill, and on Tuesday two guys you may have heard of captured that dichotomy as only they could. Gentleman, the floor is yours.
Just two guys being dudes. You love to see it. Obviously David Price makes his living by keeping the ball in the park while Mike Trout earns his by hitting it out. One plays in Los Angeles, the other in, um, the other side of Los Angeles. But as different as they may be, they still manage to keep things above the belt, emerging better friends than they were when their exchange of beliefs began. AMERICA, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? DO WE HAVE TO GET BRUCE BACK ON THE PHONE?!
Despite the kum ba ya message, however, the best of all of this has to be Price’s reaction. “lol I still think you’ll be alright!” he fires back at Trout’s string of eye roll emojis. Wherever you fall on the juiced ball issue, we can all agree that Price is right about at least one thing.