Sergio Romo of all people should not be telling Bryce Harper to 'shut up'

Nationals superstar and reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper created a stir on Thursday when his comments to ESPN The Magazine -- comments in which he called baseball "a tired sport" because individual expression is frowned upon -- made the rounds. Eventually, Harper's remarks reached the ears of Giants right-hander Sergio Romo, and Romo didn't hold back in his appraisals. Via Carl Stewart of the San Jose Mercury News, here's what Romo had to say:

"Don't put your foot in your mouth when you're the face of the game and you just won the MVP. I'm sorry, but just shut up."

Romo goes on to explain how his enthusiams on the mound are somehow different from a hitter like Harper who admires a home run on occasion.

I don't have a lot of patience for guardians of decorum, but I particularly don't want to hear it from a closer reliever like Romo, whose celebrations are hardly muted. I think that's fine, but don't suddenly become a champion of propriety when the subject becomes what a hitter does. There's no substantive difference between pumping your fist after a strikeout and flipping your bat after a home run. Sure, if you're glaring at the hitter or pitcher while you do those things and thus personalize everything, then that's perhaps a different matter. Absent that, though, what's the distinction to be made?

Consider this the latest bit of anecdotal evidence that it's mostly pitchers who have a problem with all of this. They're fine with the pitcher's usual liturgies of celebration, but when a hitter does something similar, then it's an affront to all that is decent. If you're a study in humble equanimity on the mound, then by all means insist that everyone be as boring as you, but if you're a closer reliever like Romo? Perhaps the doctor should heal himself first.

Or, better yet, don't worry about how the other guy chooses to approach the game.