When Ken Griffey Jr. made his “Let the kids play” ad for MLB before the 2018 postseason, I thought we were done with denouncing bat-flips and other gray areas of baseball etiquette. No such luck.
In the eighth inning of the Padres/Rangers game in August 2020, the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. swung at a 3-0 fastball with a 10-3 lead. He belted a grand slam off Rangers reliever Juan Nicasio. Tatis had missed a take sign, but the Rangers disapproved with the Padres holding such a big lead. Ian Gibaut replaced Nicasio and threw his first pitch behind Manny Machado’s head.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward said of Tatis’ 3-0 swing: I didn’t like it, personally, but the norms are being challenged daily. So just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right. I don’t think we liked it as a group.
This raises the whole issue of baseball’s unwritten rules, one of which is don’t swing at a 3-0 pitch when you have a big lead. But a bunch of big leaguers and ex-big leaguers jumped to the defense of Tatis Jr.
–Hall of Famer Johnny Bench tweeted, “So you take a pitch…now you’re 3-1. Then the pitcher comes back with a great setup pitch…3-2. Now you’re ready to groundout into a double play. Everyone should hit 3-0. Grand Slams are a huge stat.”
–Retired MLB infielder Trevor Plouffe tweeted, “Ya, we were taught that coming up, but it’s ok to change when you learn that the things you were taught are stupid.”
Ron Darling with the Mets (photo, NY Daily News)
Former big league pitcher Ron Darling spoke about the trouble with the unwritten rules: “I’m old enough that I grew up in a game that a lot of older guys had all the power and they would tell you how to act, what to do, and you did what they told you to do because that’s how it was. Unwritten rules only work if everyone knows them. By their very definition, nobody knows an unwritten rule, so what you have now is you’re trying to decide that a 3-0 count in a seven-run game is off-limits. I’m just not with that at all.”
Let’s take a look at some of baseball’s unwritten rules. As Joe Garagiola put it, “Baseball is a game played by human beings and governed by unwritten laws of survival and self-preservation.”
Don’t take too long rounding the bases after a home run. In 2015, Machado hit a home run off of Jonathan Papelbon, and Papelbon thought that Machado took too much time admiring his handiwork. The next time they faced each other, Papelbon threw at Machado’s head. Bryce Harper, Papelbon’s teammate, objected to Papelbon’s reaction. When Harper didn’t hustle on a flyout, Papelbon confronted Harper in the dugout, leading to a fight. Harper later called for an end to the unwritten rules.
Do not spend time admiring your homer. Jose Bautista brought this unwritten rule to a head with his emphatic bat flip in the 2015 American League Division Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers. Rangers pitcher Sam Dyson took offense and told Toronto’s Edwin Encarnación to tell Bautista to “respect the game.” The following year, Bautista slid into the Rangers’ Rougned Odor, leading to a fight.
Juan Soto with the Nationals (photo, Britannica)
The same day as the Tatis Jr. debacle, Juan Soto of the Nationals blasted a 445-foot home run off Braves reliever Will Smith. Soto admired his home run for a second or two — not as long as he had gazed at some of his other shots — and Smith then screamed an expletive at Soto. That just led to an even slower trot around the bases. ESPN’s David Schoenfield noted: “It’s important to understand the cultural aspects here, however. Tatis and Soto are both Dominican, and Latin players often do play the game with more flair — no different than, say, the Korea Baseball Organization, where bat flips are almost an artistic aspect of the game.”
Do not disrespect the pitcher in any way. Bob Gibson once beaned an opposing batter for a perceived slight that occurred 15 years earlier. Stan Williams, who pitched during the 1960s, wrote the names of players he felt he had to retaliate against on the inside of his baseball cap. Nolan Ryan threw beanballs at hitters who bunted to him, making him field his position.
Do not steal bases when your team has a big lead. In 1994, while playing in the minor leagues, Michael Jordan stole third base even though his team had an 11–0 lead. His manager, Terry Francona, explained the unwritten rule to him after the game.
Do not bunt to break up a no-hitter. In a 2001 game, with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Curt Schilling was just five outs away from a perfect game, but San Diego’s Ben Davis bunted for a single. Some of the Diamondbacks spent the rest of the game peppering Davis with obscenities. After Schilling completed a three-hitter for a 3-1 win, manager Bob Brenly called Davis’ move “chicken.” Never mind that San Diego was only down 2-0 at the time and desperately needed a baserunner to bring the tying run to the plate. Forget trying to win the game, apparently. Davis broke the unwritten rule. Brenly later admitted that the bunt fell into the gray area of unwritten rules. “That’s the way I was raised in the game,” Brenly said. “That doesn’t mean that I’m right and they’re wrong, that’s just the way I was taught how to play the game…. It’s all very subjective. It depends which side of the fence you’re on.”
This column first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on August 20, 2020.
“Let the Kids Play” ad mentioned at the beginning.
