Jose Bautista, 42, who performed a taboo 바카라“bat flip” in Major League Baseball (MLB) that led to a fistfight, has officially retired.
Batista signed a one-day contract with his hometown team, the Toronto Blue Jays, for a retirement ceremony on 12 December.
Batista will say goodbye in front of his home fans on the 13th before the 2023 MLB World Series against the Chicago Cubs at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Batista was an outfielder during Toronto’s golden era in the 2010s, posting a career .247 batting average, 344 home runs and 975 RBI in 15 seasons from 2004 to 2018.
He made a name for himself as a power hitter, hitting 54 home runs in a single season with Toronto in 2010.
Batista is more famous for his “bat flips” than his stats.
On 15 October 2015, in the bottom of the seventh inning of a 3-3 tie in Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers, after hitting a game-winning three-run homer, Batista briefly looked towards the mound before flipping his bat in the air.
It remains one of the most dramatic bat-flipping ceremonies in MLB history, but it was also criticised for being disrespectful to the opposing team.
Still remembering the moment, Texas retaliated against Batista the following year.
When Batista made a rough slide to second base in the eighth inning of a visiting game against Texas on 16 May 2016, Texas infielder Lugned O’Dowd delivered a hard punch to Batista’s face.
O’Dowd’s sharp punch, reminiscent of a boxer’s, caught the attention of sports fans around the world.
Batista played in Toronto until 2017, then bounced between three teams in 2018 before never returning to MLB.
After being released by his last team, the Philadelphia Phillies, he continued to play in his native Dominican Republic, where he competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, appearing in the bronze medal match against South Korea.
“Everyone knows I’m retired, but I wanted to make it official,” Batista told ESPN and other local media outlets that day.
O’Dowd, meanwhile, was released last month after playing 59 games for the San Diego Padres this season.