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Mexican League pitcher flips off batter before striking him out

Over the past few seasons, a debate has raged within baseball over how much players should be allowed to celebrate big moments. One side believes an excessive bat flip or fist pump warrants a 98 mph fastball to the ribs. The other side thinks big moment warrant big celebrations. Baseball is a game, it should be fun.

For the most part, we here at The Stew are fine with players showing emotion on the field. With that said, this one might go a little too far.

Your eyes do not deceive you. That certainly looks like a pitcher from the Mexican League giving the middle finger to a batter mid-windup. Based on the end result of the video, it appears he struck out the batter with the pitch.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Is this legal? How is this legal? In most leagues, we feel like that would probably be classified as a balk.

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What the heck happened after the play? Was the player disciplined? Did he just get away with throwing up an obscene gesture mid-windup? Was the umpire so shocked by the whole thing that he just allowed it to happen? What in the world is going on?

We don’t know the fallout here, but we can safely assume there would have been severe repercussions for doing this in Major League Baseball. There’s no way a pitcher would be allowed to remain in the game if he did something like that. We would imagine it would result in an immediate ejection, a hefty fine and a possible suspension. Oh, and someone on his team would get hit with a pitch the following inning.

While we’re generally in favor of emotion and celebration, we can’t endorse the pitcher’s antics here. Pumping a fist after a big play is one thing, tossing out an obscene gesture in front of fans and children is something else entirely. You can celebrate big moments when necessary, but that doesn’t give you the excuse to act like an idiot on the mound.

(BLS H/N: Barstool Sports)

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik