Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Taylor Walls said a gesture he made Sunday, in which he mimicked Donald Trump’s reaction after an assassination attempt, was not meant as an endorsement of the former president, according to multiple reports.
Walls said Tuesday the gesture was “kind of more of a joke that we have with guys in the locker room,” he told the Associated Press.
“Joke may not be the right word,” Walls continued, per the AP. “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.”
On Sunday, after hitting a double in a win over the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, Walls raised a fist and mouthed “fight, fight,” a reference to Trump’s gesture immediately after a bullet hit his ear during a rally on July 13 in Pennsylvania.
Taylor Walls did the Trump “Fight! Fight!” after this double pic.twitter.com/8K5ovTEIQh
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 21, 2024
“To immediately stand up and show strength, to me, speaks pretty loudly,” Walls said about Trump’s reaction, per the AP. “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 (more) suppressed level.”
Walls isn’t the only MLB player to draw questions regarding a supposed reference to the shooting.
St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter Matt Carpenter recently addressed online speculation regarding his team’s celebration on Sunday, when an online outlet compared it to images from the moments after the assassination attempt on the Republican presidential nominee. Carpenter stated multiple times that the gestures were not a political statement.
Snippets of Alec Burleson’s home run trot and the subsequent dugout celebration appeared to show Burleson and many of his teammates cupping their ears with one hand while raising their opposite fists in the air. Lars Nootbaar also made the gesture as he rounded the bases after his own home run one inning later.
Carpenter denied any political motivation and explained the celebration was meant to be an “inside joke” with Burleson, with the cupped hand and arm up intended to mimic the movements of a DJ.
“Burleson is a former college rapper,” Carpenter said. “He’s been carrying us at the plate. (The celebration) is the furthest thing from a political statement.”
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(Photo: Mike Carlson / Getty)