Before World Series Game 7, Alex Bregman and Juan Soto home run bat-carries a hot topic

HOUSTON – Let the kids play.

Just not too playfully.

Tuesday night’s Game 6 of the World Series was memorable for a variety of reasons, including more tired discourse about unwritten rules of the game that, regardless of MLB slogans like “We Play Loud” and “Let the Kids Play” – which supposedly encourage more personality in the game – the sport can never fully get past.

First there was Alex Bregman of the Astros carrying his bat all the way down the line after a first-inning homer. When Juan Soto of the Nationals homered off Justin Verlander in the fifth, he mimicked Bregman.

And afterward neither manager afterward was thrilled with it.

“He shouldn't carry the bat past first base,” Astros manager AJ Hinch said of Bregman. “Soto shouldn't carry it to first base, either.”

Nationals manager Dave Martinez was on the same page.

“We didn't like it,” he said of Bregman’s carry. “And the fact that Soto did it, I'll be quite honest with you, I didn't like it when he did it, as well. It's a conversation I'll have with Juan. That's not who we are. I mean, if he feels like he wants to carry the bat all the way to first base, then that's him.”

Bregman apologized.

"I just let my emotions get the best of me," Bregman said in the Astros clubhouse after the 7-2 loss. “It's not how I was raised to play the game, and I'm sorry for doing that."

Only Soto, who turned 21 last Friday, seemed to wonder what the big deal was.  

“I saw that, what Bregman did in the first inning...I was like, 'that was pretty cool, I wanna do that," Soto said.

Hinch, asked again before Game 7 about the respective bat carries, seemed to soften his stance. At least somewhat.

“I think we should always encourage players to show personality and be as open with the fans and drive the sport,” Hinch said. “[There’s] so many good stories in these clubhouses, so many good people and players to celebrate, to a point then it crosses a line where it was probably unnecessary to go that far.”

Hinch added: “I don't want to go too far the other way where, all of a sudden, we're not allowing any of the celebrations or any of the bat flips or any of the high exuberant celebrations in dugouts, the handshakes, the hugs, the dancing in the dugouts. All that stuff is fun for the younger generation of fans that we're trying to get interested in the sport.”

Still, Hinch said, there are limits.

“When it gets to the competition on the field, I fear a little bit of it goes too far,” he said. “And I'm actually OK with Soto thinking that it was funny. I think that's part of these personalities that you have to individualize within our sport if you want to celebrate the youthfulness that comes with it. Being respectful to the game, being respectful to your opponent, not crossing that line is something that we always need to preach to our players. But I want our fans to know our players and the personalities that come with it within the realm of sportsmanship.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.