Guardians Outfielder Thinks Baseball Should Have More Trash Talk

There are two ways you can enter a sporting event as an athlete — one that trash talks and one that lets their play do the talking. Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan appeared on Foul Territory TV on Thursday to debate the age-old art form and why it belongs in baseball.

“I think a lot of the time it’s this way (in baseball) because that’s what we were taught growing up. It’s like baseball is the gentleman’s game; you don’t do that but then you dig into it,” Kwan said on the show. “It’s like, why don’t we do it? There’s no good reason for that.”

Notable trash talkers across sports include NBA’s Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. The NFL had Randy Moss, Richard Sherman and Terrell Owens. So what about baseball? They are not exempt from the art. Alex Rodriguez and AJ Pierzynski top the list.

“I think you see the NFL and NBA, there’s trash talk,” Kwan said. “(Chicago Bulls guard) Pat Beverley, love him or hate him, people are talking about him and we’ll watch those games because of that. NFL, the corners are talking smack to wide receivers like that’s fun to watch.”

Kwan might want to work on perfecting his trash talk because he thinks it’s an important part of sports and wants to see more of it.

“It gets both sides going. And then the emotions are big when one side succeeds and one doesn’t,” Kwan said. “And I mean, I think that’s just good for the sport in general. And there’s no ill feelings.

“I don’t think at the end of all of it — it’s part of the game if you get the person’s head. That’s just another aspect of gamesmanship that I think players have to get over so yeah, I agree. I think that the trash talking is good. I think it’s fun to the game and yeah, I think there should be more.”