Citizens Bank Park begins to bump this time of year, with the Philadelphia Phillies once again earning a spot in the playoffs. Last season, a run was made to the World Series before losing to the Houston Astros. They will be hoping to get back to the Fall Classic but this time, finish off a job and bring a ring back to the City of Brotherly Love.
If you doubted how much Phillies players want a ring, think again. It’s even part of their celebration after getting a big hit. Nick Castellanos was having some fun with his teammates after hitting a double in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series against the Miami Marlins.
MLB decided to tweet the celebration out, with Castellanos showing his ring finger in the direction of his teammates in the dugout.
On the other hand, ESPN must have misunderstood what Castellanos was going for.
ESPN is broadcasting the game, being their primetime matchup of the Wild Card series. The story around Philadelphia is a good one and plenty of baseball fans across the country are going to want to follow along.
They decided to post a video of Castellanos’ celebration on Twitter but blurred his entire hand out. Maybe they thought he was giving the Phillies dugout the finger. Or they just did not want to be accused of posting something potentially offensive.
Either way, Castellanos was just expressing his desire to win the World Series.
Odds are, Nick Castellanos will not be the last Phillies player to flash the celebration throughout the playoffs. Big hits are going to come and the ring finger is going to come back out. Whether it’s later in Game 1, down the road against Miami, or later in the playoffs.
The Phillies are ring-chasing but will have quite the road ahead of them.
Looking ahead to a potential NLDS, the Atlanta Braves will be next up. Neither team particularly likes each other, being bitter rivals in the NL East. Atlanta has been the best team in baseball by a wide margin but as you can tell, there is going to be a lot of confidence coming from Philadelphia.
Maybe if things get heated, the specific finger being shown does change. But as long as they are just celebrating hits and attempting to get the home crowd game, ESPN can probably unblur future videos of the Phillies.
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