Taylor Walls won’t tell you who he’s voting for in November, but the Tampa Bay Rays shortstop was admittedly imitating Donald Trump on Sunday when he celebrated a double in the Bronx with a familiar gesture.
Walls said Tuesday that his Trump-inspired celebration of a hit Sunday at Yankee Stadium was not intended as an endorsement of the Republican presidential candidate and added he was unlikely to do it again.
Walls pumped his fist and shouted ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ after hitting a double against the New York Yankees on Sunday, mimicking Trump’s reaction after a bullet scratched his ear during a campaign event in Pennsylvania on July 13.
‘I think it’s pretty inspirational when any person, in the blink of an eye, their life could be taken from them,’ Walls said before the Rays faced the Toronto Blue Jays. ‘They don’t really know what’s going on in the heat of the moment.
‘To immediately stand up and show strength, to me, speaks pretty loudly,’ Walls added. ‘Anyone in that situation or that type of event, when it happens, it’s strong. It kind of represents character to me, and something that similarly I feel like I’ve faced those challenges in baseball, but on a much suppressed level.’
Taylor Walls did the Trump “Fight! Fight!” after this double pic.twitter.com/8K5ovTEIQh
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 21, 2024
The fifth-inning double off right-hander Marcus Stroman was Walls’ first hit since the shooting. He has five hits in 33 at-bats this month, including four singles.
Still, Walls said he isn’t likely to make the gesture again.
‘That was kind of more of a joke that we have with guys in the locker room,’ he said. ‘Joke may not be the right word. It was kind of just something that we had together that we thought was kind of funny, that we thought would be all right. I don’t really see that going much further than that. I don’t foresee myself doing it again.’
Walls declined to say who he intended to vote for in November, referencing President Joe Biden’s recent decision not to seek reelection.
‘You can read between the lines of how I carry myself, how I was raised, how me and my family coordinate, how we’re going to go about things and do things,’ Walls said. ‘That’s kind of what I base my vote on and my view on.’
St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Alec Burleson appeared to do a similar celebration on Sunday before his performance was clarified to the media.
In what was mistaken for a nod to Trump’s ear injury at the July 15 shooting, the 25-year-old slugger covered the side of his face with one hand and fist pumped with the other as he rounded third following his 18th home run of the season.
BREAKING: Players on the St. Louis Cardinals celebrated a home run by doing Trump’s Fight! Fight! Fight! salute. They had their right hand on their ear, and the other riased in a fist
I think I know who my new favorite baseball team is 🔥
pic.twitter.com/i3lXXj4tMi— George (@BehizyTweets) July 21, 2024
At least three Cardinals players were seen responding in kind during Sunday’s 6-2 win over the Braves in Atlanta, but afterwards veteran Matt Carpenter told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the celebration was misinterpreted.
‘Definitely not a political statement,’ Carpenter said. ‘That is off base.’
As reported by the Dispatch’s Derrick Goold, the pantomime was a reference to Burleson’s rap persona, ‘Biscuit,’ from his college days at East Carolina. And by holding his hand to his ear, Burleson (AKA ‘Biscuit’) was pretending to be wearing headphones.
‘It’s an inside joke with [Burleson],’ Carpenter said. ‘This isn’t a political statement by any means. I don’t know where that came from.’
