By Ryan Bologna
Unwritten rules in baseball have been challenged by younger players over the last couple of years.
Some examples are Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch when the Padres already had a big lead and Mauricio Dubon bunting for a hit against the Padres while they were up nine runs.
The irony here is that the Padres were involved in both of these incidents, but were on different sides of the coin for each one. It points out the absurdity of these practices.
There is no clock in baseball, and there is no mercy rule in the big leagues. So there should be no point in the game where a winning team should stop trying because they will hurt the other team’s feelings. Tatis Jr. is one of the most exciting players in the game. Hitting more home runs and showing personality in those moments by doing bat flips is good for the growth of the game. Telling players to not give their best effort for all nine innings will drive viewers away.
Dubon should not be criticized for his move as well. If he feels his best way to get a hit is to lay down a bunt, then go ahead and do it. Whether it is a close game or not, all of these plate appearances will go into his statistics at the end of the year. Those statistics are used against him in arbitration and free agency. For that reason, no major league baseball player should be taking at-bats off in a blowout.
I would argue that a losing team putting a position player in to pitch in a blowout makes a bigger mockery of the game than breaking any of these unwritten rules. If you are deliberately having a position player lob 45 mph meatballs in the strike zone, you are signing up for runs on the board.
A position player pitching should be fun, like when Anthony Rizzo struck out Freddie Freeman, or when Brett Phillips runs from the mound to make a sliding catch. But it is not so fun when Yermin Mercedes hits a home run on a 3-0 pitch off of Willians Astudillo and he receives criticism for it. Especially when his own manager says it was a big mistake for his player to hit a home run.
San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler articulates how silly unwritten rules are in the first place.
With all of that said, we as fans should also not be governing emotions on the baseball field. It is unreasonable to expect major league players in the heat of competition to act with the same amount of level-headedness fans sitting on the couch do.
Does that mean beaning a guy with a 95 mph fastball because he bunted for a hit in a blowout is justified? Absolutely not. But if a player is mad about a player bunting in a blowout it is okay for a player to be mad. Players are not always thinking in the most rational ways when they are competing at the highest level and are notorious for holding grudges to create motivation to perform in the future. They should use the anger as motivation to strike the guy out next time.
If they do strike out that player next time, showing some emotion in return should be encouraged. Emotion is what can create rivalries and anticipation for future matchups as it did when José Bautista bat flipped against the Texas Rangers.
Who wants to see someone get a big strikeout to end an inning in a close game and just walk to the dugout as if nothing happened? That is boring. Players should get fired up, it makes the games more fun to watch and it should not be seen as showing up the opponent.
For a sport that is trying to reach a younger audience, abandoning these unwritten rules and encouraging more displays of emotion should be high on the list of priorities.
Picture Credit: Jason Swaby
