Thanks to Erick Aybar’s bunt, Jered Weaver throwing a temper tantrum and Carlos Guillen doing everything but the Dougie after a homer this last Sunday, we’ve all gotten more than an earful of talk about baseball and its fabled “unwritten rules.” So much debate and vitriol erupted these supposed violations that somehow nobody bothered to ask why these rules are so sacred yet still literally unwritten.
At the risk of being too literal, but if a rule isn’t written down or in anyway official, I fail to see how it is actually a rule. Rules have specific guidelines and specific repercussions should the rule in question be broken. The old-timers would have you believe that the “unwritten rules” of baseball somehow adhere to that definition, but this weekend’s grand display of stupidity proved otherwise.
First, let’s talk about Erick Aybar bunting during a no-hitter, which Justin Verlander clearly believed was an unwritten rule violation and a “bush league” one at that. Generally speaking, bunting during a no-no is frowned upon, but based on how most people condoned Aybar’s bunt, it is pretty clear that there are exceptions, but we can’t explain that to Verlander because the exceptions are also unwritten.
And then there are the multiple contradictions that arose from the spat between Jered Weaver, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen. Weaver thought he was disrespected when Magglio Ordonez admired his home run, so Weaver attempted to politely inform Ordonez of his unwritten rule infractions by hurling some expletives at him, which in theory should make them even and end the dispute. However, Detroit claims Magglio was merely trying to determine if his slam was going to stay fair, therefore they deemed Weaver’s berating of Ordonez to be an unwritten rule violation of its own, so Carlos Guillen tried to even the odds by doing his best impression of a peacock after taking Weaver deep later in the game. Such showboating is a clear violation of the unwritten rules, but supposedly OK according to Guillen since he was avenging his teammate’s good name. But Weaver, believing the score had already been settled, took Guillen’s display as a grand showing of disrespect and shouted Guillen down before delivering a retributive brushback pitch at the next batter, which is allegedly how pitchers are permitted to retaliate when disrespected. Of course, it isn’t that simple since Jered’s pitch was fired in the near vicinity of Alex Avila’s skull, thus breaking another unwritten rule since head-hunting is not allowed under any circumstances (with the exception of being Bob Gibson).
Confused yet? I know I am. This unwritten rulebook seems to be doing more harm than good since all it resulted in was a bunch of players acting like fools and one nearly suffering a serious injury.
Here’s an idea, why don’t we actually write down some of these unwritten rules and clear up the confusion for everyone? Clearly some of these supposed rules are good ideas (like not throwing at a player’s head as payback) and others are not (outlawing bunting in a no-hitter), so why not make life easier and less embarrassing for the players by codifying these infractions?
Nobody wants to see a repeat of the furor we saw in Detroit on Sunday, and frankly Major League Baseball should be a bit ashamed over the whole display, not to mention their reaction to it. The only fallout from the conflagration is the deserved suspension of Jered Weaver for buzzing Alex Avila’s tower. The problem is that the scales of justice remain unbalanced in the eyes of the Angels since Carlos Guillen is walking away scott-free despite his prominent role in the situation. If baseball’s unwritten rules are so adamant about not showboating after homers or pitchers showing up batters, they should actually police such activity. That might sound like a totalitarian response to one bad incident, but the NFL has set the precedent for such rule enforcement in the way they penalize players for excessive celebration and taunting. The NBA and NHL have rules against such behavior as well. MLB, all they have is the unwritten policy that someone can exact revenge on the other team by throwing at a batter or sliding in too hard to break up a double play. Who’s totalitarian now: the leagues that impose specific game-based punishments or the league that risks the health of their players?
Baseball has a lot of options at their disposal, believe it or not.
Showboat too much after a dinger, you get fined.
A pitcher taunts a batter after a K, he gets a warning and a second in-game violation results in the opposing team getting an extra out in the inning.
Steal a base when your team is up by double-digits, you are automatically out.
Retaliate for an earlier beanball with one of your own, you get ejected. Oh, right, that actually is already a rule. Maybe the league isn’t as far behind the curve as I thought.
Beyond those obvious rules, the league will have to eventually weigh in on the more ambiguous violations like whether or not stealing a catcher’s pitch signals is OK or not, but once they hand down this new set of rules, we can finally dispense with all the arguments over the unwritten rules and the Wild West system of justice associated with them. It might take a little bit of the manliness and history out of the game, but it would be well worth it by way of all the injuries and ugly displays of human behavior it would prevent.
