Posts Tagged ‘The Baseball Codes’

Unwritten Rules of Major League Baseball

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

By Jimmy Williams

I just want to say a few words about baseball and it’s unwritten rules.  This has pissed me off for years.  Earlier this season, Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Justin Verlander was working on a no-hitter when Erick Aybar bunted the ball in the eighth inning and reached 1st base on a play where Verlander fielded the ball and threw it wide to first base.  Later in the inning, a two-out single was hit and the no-hitter was broken up.

After the game, many players were pissed at Aybar for laying down the bunt when there was still a chance of a no-hitter.  They said he had broken one of baseball’s “unwritten rules”.  First off, the term “unwritten rules” is stupid!  If it’s a rule, it should be in writing! Baseball players overall are a bunch of bivious creatures.  They hate when players don’t give their all by hustling to first base or running out a pop-fly, but they get upset when someone is doing everything in their power to get on base when a no-hitter is taken late into a game.  Aybar was trying to get on base late in a close game but because Verlander had a no-hitter going on, you get pissed.  If you ask me it was a smart play, yet people were treating Aybar like he was the leader of Cobra Kai, telling his students to hurt Daniel-San.

Baseball has so many unwritten rules that players often break them without knowing. Jason Turbow has written an excellent book called “The Baseball Codes”, which discuss some of baseballs unwritten rules.  Some of the rules are downright egregious!  I won’t name them all but I want to mention a few so you can see how stupid they are.

1)  Don’t swing at the first pitch after back-to-back Home Runs.  Huh?  Why not?  So if it is a good pitch to hit, I shouldn’t swing because the pitcher sucks “rhinoceros pizzle”? That’s just stupid!

2)  When you are hit by a pitch, you shouldn’t rub the mark.  What if it hurts like hell?

3)  Don’t help the opposition make a play by bracing them if they are falling into the dugout.  So basically, if you see a guy about to break his neck by trying to make a play, you should just let him break his neck.  I wonder how that will look on replay.

There are many more stupid “unwritten rules”, but you get my point.  I think baseball players should act like adults and stop being so “Tresvanty”.  They should take all of these “unwritten rules” and toss them in a “pit of unfortunate”.  I find it funny how players speak out when someone breaks an unwritten rule but for the most part they remain silent when a player breaks written rules.  Where is the backlash when players get caught drinking & driving, or engaging in spousal abuse, or drug possession?  Yet, when someone lays down a bunt in the 8th inning of a close game, players want to speak up.  For the players who spoke out against Aybar, you should be forced to drink bleach and then be thrown off the roof of a Baltimore row home, while landing on dog feces with glass in it.  And for those who read this and also believe in these “unwritten rules”, you can get the “Bozak”!

Jimmy Williams