When energetic Cubs infielder Christopher Morel swatted his second home run of the game Sunday against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, Bally Sports Midwest analyst Jim Edmonds had seen enough.
The exuberant Morel's home run, the Cubs' sixth of the day to tie an opponents' record at Busch, set off the sometimes controversial Cardinals broadcaster.
"This kid's celebration is a joke," as Morel rounded the bases. "I don't mind saying it at all. I've never seen anything like it. I just don't get it. You're a .229 hitter in the big leagues and you're running around like you're Barry Bonds."
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Play-by-play man Chip Caray turned the conversation to the fan who caught the ball, the same man who caught an earlier homer.
"He's also taking up plenty of room out there in the outfield. He's got people kind of blocked off," Edmonds added, an apparent commentary on the fan's size.
The comments by Edmonds echoed throughout Cubs and baseball social media accounts and continued into Monday as a big topic of Chicago sports-talk radio.
Dan Bernstein of Chicago radio station WSCR referenced Edmonds' penchant for diving catches, what he called unneeded showmanship.
"Jim, I don't want to hear it from you," . "I don't want to hear it from a guy who would go out of his way to make sure at the end of that catch, instead of flagging it down with his feet on the ground, if there was every opportunity to stretch out and dive, maybe slow up a little bit and then speed up a little bit. Come on now. Nobody liked to play look-at-me baseball more than Jim Edmonds.
"He hit a home run. He's a very, very happy young guy. And everybody who knows Christopher Morel knows he's not posing. He's just happy."
Cubs teammate Ian Happ defended Morel when the topic turned to Edmonds' remarks Monday on WSCR.
“It’s genuine,†of Morel. “He genuinely loves being out there playing the game. His emotion and his smile comes from just a grateful place to be out there and genuinely happy for what he’s doing. The two homers that he hit, all of the celebration was directed towards our dugout. I do think that makes a difference. It’s never in the face of somebody else. It’s never yelling at somebody else. It’s never looking at an opponent. It's always genuinely directed to his teammates, the bullpen and the guys he’s playing with every day.
“It's genuine emotion. He just loves playing baseball, and I hope he never loses that.â€