It was clear the boy was mimicking the classic "I don't like your call" behavior, namely kicking dirt on the umpire's shoes. That is not tantrum 6-year old behavior; it is cute. Then as I continued to watch it occurred to me the whole scene was staged to promote the Grizzly baseball team.
Beyond cute, it's actually a brilliant cartoon parody of "grownup" behavior (which itself sometimes reaches tantrum proportions), and it IS,
of course, all about self-promotion.
Everything is about self-promotion these days (Think Donald Trump and your own local LaVar Ball.), and if you manage to go viral, you can ride it all the way to the bank.
But don't overlook the brilliance of the scheme itself... Rather than make the kid the team's mascot, which would have totally hamstrung his act, the Grizzlies made him a coach, and thereby empowered him to interact with the umpire and force
him to participate in the cartoon.
I suspect that the practice will be banned in the bud, and that Coach Drake will NOT be back with his own reality mini-series next baseball season.
