What are baseball’s unwritten rules?
Rules are written down for a reason. If it is not written down, then it is not a rule. MLB fans argue about unwritten rules, but there simply is no such thing.
We have heard them all our lives, often drilled into us, repeatedly, like some sort of gospel.
- Don’t bunt to break up a no-hitter.
- Don’t step on the pitcher’s mound when you are running out to take the field.
- Don’t step on the lines when you are taking the field or leaving it.
- Don’t steal or swing at a 3-0 pitch if you are up by more than X number of runs.
- Don’t admire a home run that you hit, or strut around the bases.
- Don’t help an opponent.
- Don’t speak to a pitcher who is in the middle of a no-hitter.
...and many many others.
Rules are written down for a reason. If it is not written down, then it is not a rule. MLB fans argue about unwritten rules, but there simply is no such thing.
That is not to say that there is no place for good manners in baseball, but manners are a malleable thing. Some people want you to take your shoes off in their house. Others don’t like you to walk around shoeless. If you want to know the quickest way to find yourself walking, try putting your feet up on the dash in my car.
Trying to accommodate people is the essence of manners. If someone puts their feet on the dash in their own car, I am not going to say anything. If you want me to take off my shoes in your house, I will gladly do so. Manners.
Bunting to break up a no-hitter. Stealing when you are up by several runs. These are, perhaps, bad manners. But the key is always in the situation. Was the bunt simply mean-spirited? Or was it a 1-0 game, when you absolutely need a baserunner?
There is, however, a worrying trend brewing amongst baseball fans. A growing chorus demanding that these manners be made somehow compulsory.
Getting rid of the shift is a sop given by MLB to this chorus. It makes no sense in baseball terms. It makes sense only when viewed through the “tv-money-is-big-money-are-you-not-entertained” lens of the business of baseball.
Just a few years ago, not very long at all, in 2018 to be precise, MLB flipped its position on bat flips and strutting out home runs. These are two of the central tenets of the “unwritten rules” brigade. But in their “Let the Kids Play” campaign, the league decided to poo-poo those in favor of what we have today.
Fine. If that is ok, then everything else is too.
Pitch clocks are a tribute paid to the demi-god, television, as well. Forcing the pitcher to throw, ready or not, is manifestly stupid. Forcing a batter to work to the rhythm of the pitcher is capitulating control of the plate, forfeiting any right to determine the outcome of the play. And for what? To sell more soap?
Small ball is baseball. Home runs are an aberration, that is what makes them so special. To take the strategy out of the game is to gut everything good from baseball.
Last season, the Giants came under fire for continuing to score when up by six or seven runs. Citing these mythical “unwritten rules”, critics claimed that they should have stopped playing baseball because the other team might feel bad.
Nonsense.
There is only one way to play baseball and that is on the front foot. Every batter must look to get on base. Every baserunner must look to score. Never stop fighting until the fight is done. There have even been calls, from the fringe I grant you, to institute some kind of ten-run-rule into Major League Baseball.
But fringe ideas slowly work their way into the mainstream. Not too many years ago, instituting a clock in baseball was seen as a loony extremist idea. Today, we have clocks in baseball.
So, pretty please, with sugar on top, bunt the ball. Steal the base. Get back to basics. Stop looking for the home run and just put the ball into play. And if you are confronted with bad manners, hold your peace. Then make them pay. That is baseball.