On Adam Eaton, Jimmy Rollins, And Seeing What We Want To See

Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Late Tuesday night, Jimmy Rollins hit a home run in the ninth inning to give the Sox a 5-4 lead after Nate Jones had blown a 4-2 lead an inning earlier. The home run would serve as the game-winner, and help the Sox get off to a 2-0 start on the season.

That's good!

Unfortunately, that's not what the story was on Twitter following the home run or the game. Instead White Sox fans decided to start playing Armchair Psychologist, and many diagnosed both Rollins and Adam Eaton with a case of "Having Beef."

It all comes from this shot of the White Sox dugout following Rollins' home run.



That's Rollins and Eaton in the dugout. They're walking toward one another, when Eaton steps aside and lets Rollins go by. Many people are using this video, shot long after Rollins had come back to the dugout, as proof that there's a rift between the two.

This is what we call confirmation bias.

It all stems from the Adam LaRoche situation. We all know how Adam Eaton felt about what happened with LaRoche. While he didn't hold court with the media telling people Kenny Williams should have been fired like Chris Sale did, Eaton did go on the radio and say that 13-year old (he was 13 in 2015) Drake LaRoche was a real team leader last season.

Which is either idiotic, or totally accurate and the smoking gun of what was wrong with this team last year.

While there hasn't been any confirmation on the other end, there are plenty of people who believe Jimmy Rollins is the new veteran on the team that went to Kenny Williams and asked "what the fuck?" leading to LaRoche eventually putting #FamilyFirst and retiring.

So when you hear Eaton saying stupid things about LaRoche, and you believe Rollins was the instigator in the situation, you believe Adam Eaton may be upset with Rollins. Then you go out and look for reasons to confirm your belief.

Then you see this video, which does not show anything that happened in the dugout before that moment, and you see what you want to believe. Confirmation bias.

Now, there is some video from when Rollins first came back to the dugout and was greeted by all of his teammates in happy fashion. While you only see Eaton in the video for a moment or two, you know he is in the group of people congratulating Rollins. You can even see Eaton deliver at least one butt slap!

That's the international sign of "way to go!"

Since Adam LaRoche is no longer on the team, I'm confident there are no guns in that dugout, and nobody is holding one to Eaton's head forcing him to be there.

Now, let's go back to the original video that caused this "controversy."

Eaton walks toward Rollins. He then moves aside, turns his head to Rollins and says something. Now, it's possible that Eaton said "I hate you and I swear on the life of the great Drake LaRoche I will see you dead," but it's far more likely that Eaton said "fastball?" Because that's typically what happens between teammates in a dugout after one of them hits a homer. Following the celebration, you ask him what pitch it was.

I realize that none of what we see in these videos proves anything one way or the other. It's totally possible that Eaton and Rollins don't like one another. If you work anywhere in an environment where there are around 40 others employees with you on a daily basis, you aren't going to like every one of them. That's just life.

What makes me laugh about this whole situation, though, is that a lot of Sox fans who were convinced these two hate one another based on that one interaction side with Rollins. They want Eaton to "get over" the LaRoche thing and move on with his life.

Yet, it's those same people who aren't letting go of The War of LaRoches themselves.

If you're upset that Adam Eaton is acting like an idiot for still being upset about this whole thing, well, in the possible parlance of a 13-year old, it takes one to know one.

Comments

  1. Yes it's apparent that Adam is mad and will not try to do anything to help the Sox to win. Forget about the 5 hits he has gotten in 2 games. Some people need to grow up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HA! I like your version :"I hate you and I swear on the life of the great Drake LaRoche I will see you dead,"
    HA!

    ReplyDelete

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