Diamondbacks' Pool Fair Game For Dodgers Celebration [BLOG]
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
Usually, a team might celebrate clinching its division by whooping and hollering and hugging and jumping around on the playing field, whether that happens to be home or away. The Arizona Diamondbacks asked the Los Angeles Dodgers not to return to the field after winning the National League West, citing security reasons. The Dodgers went to the pool instead.
The elated players sprinted across the field and scaled the right field wall before jumping into what is known as one of Chase Field's signature features, a place for fans to cool off during the scorching Arizona days.
The Diamondbacks celebrated by jumping into that pool years earlier, and the Dodgers did it Thursday.
Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall chided the Los Angeles team with a somewhat snide statement.
"I could call it disrespectful and classless," the prepared comment began, "but they don't have a beautiful pool at their old park and must have really wanted to see what one was like."
Yep, I'm sure all those millionaire ball players just wanted to take a dip and did not have the means to do so elsewhere.
Come on, Derrick. Really?
Diamondbacks infielder Willie Bloomquist called the Dodgers' celebration - complete with goggles, by the way - "classless" and said he expected differently from a team with so many veterans.
I totally understand that many in Arizona hate this move by the Dodgers. If this happens to your team, you have to be sickened, angered, ticked off - particularly if your team had a nine-and-a-half-game lead over Los Angeles in June and allowed it to completely evaporate.
If it is your team, though, your team that has undergone the unbelievable transformation from last place to clinching the division while winning 42 of 50 games in one stretch, you probably love it. If you are impartial, you still might love it because it is an incredible, infectious comeback story.
Partying in the pool? Bold, brash, irreverent. Not demure. Not particularly respectful. Not so much concerned with etiquette. Isn't that what celebrating is all about?
Winners get to celebrate. That is part of the deal. If you don't want another team celebrating on your field - or in your pool - you best not let them win.
