Baseball can be so, so stupid:

With the Cubs down by three runs and down to their last strike against the Nationals on Sunday night, rookie David Bote clubbed a pinch-hit, walk-off grand slam.

Again: Walk-off grand slam. Walk-off grand slam. It’s essentially the most exciting thing that can happen in a baseball game. Bote is a 25-year-old rookie reserve player who just single-handedly won a game for a team in the midst of a tight pennant chase. Bote has played real well in his 34 Major League games, but there’s just no guarantee whatsoever that he will ever have another moment like that in his career. Heck, 20-year, Hall of Fame-bound veterans dream of getting a moment like that.

There’s really no way to over-celebrate a walk-off grand slam, but there’s really, really, really no way to accuse Bote of doing so. All he did was gently flip his bat, then run the bases with his arms out in the type of obvious, transparent excitement that should absolutely accompany, again, a walk-off grand slam.

After flipping his bat on a big homer in a game in July, A’s outfielder and wise baseball sage Mark Canha started to apologize for the action, then thought better of it, saying, “People getting offended by bat flips is so silly. I’m not sorry. I’m not really sorry. It’s part of our game. Everybody does it. If somebody is going to throw at me because of it, I’ve gotten thrown at in the past this season for bat flipping, I clearly didn’t learn my lesson. If you’re offended by that, I don’t care.”

Canha, of course, is absolutely right. Baseball is for fun. And it’s horribly damning that enough of stuffy old-school baseball culture lingers to compel a guy like David Bote to clarify why he might show excitement in the midst of an unspeakably exciting moment. Seriously, how is this still a thing?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Greatness is fleeting. Enjoy your home runs.

(Thanks to HardballTalk for calling our attention to Bote’s statement.)