No one thought that seeing his MLB career end in ignominy, watching no MLB team come close to signing him despite the obvious talent, and even a small chance at going to prison would change Trevor Bauer all that much (Bauer denied the allegations against him and no charges were ever filed). There probably hasn’t been a more cinder-block-headed athlete in our midst in quite some time. Bauer only sees what Bauer wants to see, and everything else is always because you don’t get it or you’re not as clever as he is. He has made an entire life up his own ass, and any setback isn’t a time for reflection but a deeper bunkering down.
Still, one still can be reminded and taken back by just what a knot he’s turned himself into crawling into himself backward:
The question, though we all know the answer, is whether an obtuse, historically obnoxious white dude was either unaware that doing a samurai sword celebration in your first year in Japan would be insulting, or that he knew it would be and was going to do it anyway to either make it clear he thinks those kinds of feelings and country and league is beneath him? That he can do this because he’s Trevor Bauer and he’s only here because he has to be, and thus he doesn’t need to worry himself about being respectful to anyone?
Softball question, I know. At least he’s well on the way to being too toxic to pitch in Japan as well, before he starts his career as a weekly guest on whatever farm runoff collector Tucker Carlson ends up. (Ed. note - he’s going to have to fight Aubrey Huff for that gig).