Throwing a Flag on Excessive Celebration

Much has been made in recent weeks about stupid penalties for excessive celebration in college football that have had a direct impact on the games.

You want to talk about truly excessive celebration? Well, I ask you, what do each of the pictures above have in common? No, they are not pictures of the Angels and Yankees celebrating winning their respective division titles. Yes, they are pictures from the aftermath of games yesterday wherein the Angels and Yankees both clinched victories in the WILD CARD ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS.

All that the Angels and Yankees clinched yesterday was the right to play for the right to play in the World Series. That's it. They clinched getting into the second round out of three of the MLB playoffs.

In what other professional sport does this type of idiocy take place? Answer - none. You don't see teams giving the coach a Gatorade bath and shooting off champagne following a wild card round victory in the NFL. You don't see NHL teams shooting off champagne in the locker room following any other round of the playoffs but for the Stanley Cup. Occasionally an NBA team will spray champagne around the locker room for making it to the NBA finals. Or maybe because it's a routine Saturday night. Hell, even in the NCAA's, they cut down the nets for making it to the Final Four, but that's only after they've made it through four rounds of the tournament.

So Major League Baseball, stop already. Really the only people who you're keeping happy are the California vintners. To the rest of us, you look like a bunch of morons.