The Cleveland Guardians and New York Yankees are wrestling for the opportunity to advance to the ALCS. The stakes are high, so when Cleveland’s Josh Naylor smacked a line drive solo shot to centre field to bring his team within one in Game 4 on Sunday, of course he was going to celebrate.
Naylor, a native of Mississauga, Ont., has been doing the ‘rock the baby’ celebration much of the year, but this performance may have been his most emphatic.
Naylor also reportedly took it a step further by calling Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole his son as he rounded third base.
MLB.com’s Mandy Bell explained the background of the celebration in this tweet.
Asked what he thought about Naylor’s celebration after the Yankees’ win, Cole said: “Yeah. Whatever. It’s cute.”
The reporter then said: “It seems like it did bother you a bit,” to which Cole replied: ““I just was made aware of it. I didn’t see it in the moment. It wouldn’t have bothered me in the moment. It’s just kind of funny.”
Russell Westbrook popularized rocking the baby in the NBA, but the MLB is a lot more conservative about this kind of stuff. Commenters were either amused or aghast on social media:
It’s not the first time this year there’s been a controversy with Cole involving Canadian connections.
During the regular season, Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah hit Aaron Judge with an errant slider.
Cole, who was not playing that game, took exception and came out of the Yankee dugout to voice his displeasure.
His teammates intervened while Manoah and Judge calmly hashed things out, but in an interview after the game, the Blue Jays ace invited Cole to try his luck charging the mound.
