During Spring Training of 2015, Dodger fans noticed something was different about star outfielder Yasiel Puig. It seemed that he had abandoned one of his signature moves: the batflip. For those who have never seen a baseball player do a batflip, here's a video featuring Puig and called by the inimitable Vin Scully.

Batflipping is exciting. It's entertaining. It's harmless (well, except to those with fragile egos). For some reason, fogies who hate fun hate batflips, which in turn makes batflips even more fun.

Unfortunately, it turns out we weren't imagining Puig moving away from the batflip. On April 14, 2015, Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times wrote that Puig was attempting to cut down on batflipping:

Though acknowledging that some fans are entertained by his theatrics, Puig said in Spanish, “I want to show American baseball that I’m not disrespecting the game.”

You know who disrespects the game? People who feel that "respect" for the game means players should all be stiff, emotionless and, well, entirely uninteresting. People who insist that there's one right way to do things and, in effect, erase the many different baseball cultures throughout the world. How anyone can believe that a rigid, soulless game of baseball is one that is viable in the 21st century is beyond me.

While this is all disheartening, this final quote from Puig inspires perhaps a bit of confidence for batflip devotees:

“If it’s a big home run or if I’m frustrated because I couldn’t connect in my previous at-bats or if I drive in important runs for my team, I might do it,” he said. “You never know. I can’t say I won’t do it.”

This means there is still hope that the batflip will live on. By starting this petition, we wish to inform Yasiel Puig that we are 100% behind his batflips, because they're part of what make him one of the most vibrant players in MLB right now and we'd be so sad to see them go for good.

So ignore the haters and batflip your little heart out, Yasiel. The game of baseball is better for it.