WTF? Baseball's Unwritten Rules?

[iacas]

WTF?

I give up.

[mclaren4life]

This is one of the dumbest things ever. I hate when people say “unwritten rules”. I’d he didn’t want him to hit it out then walk him or throw a better pitch. It’s baseball so i expect this kind of foolishness. 

[cipher]

That is really stupid. As a leadoff hitter I was always ready to swing at the first pitch because I knew it often would be a fastball down the middle. Thankfully I had good coaching who knew that, and knew my numbers. The whole point is to take advantage of the best opportunity given to you as a hitter.  

[BC-to-MI]

Baseball was my first love, I pitched in college, and I will defend it as the greatest sport until I die, but stuff like this drives me insane. There is no other sport where they expect you to stop trying because you are winning. I can understand not stealing up big, or not trying to score from first on a double, but to stop trying to get a hit is ridiculous. Even worse is his own manager being upset. That's a great way to lose the locker room.

Baseball is always trying to figure out how to attract the younger demographics yet continuously gets upset whenever younger players do anything that makes the game appear fun. As David Price said, "If you don't like it, pitch better."

[Piz]

Thou shalt not serve up a meatball with the bases loaded.  That is also an unwritten rule.  It is hardly the batter's fault that he got a good pitch to hit.

[bweiss711]

I didn't realize it was so easy to just hit a home run whenever you wanted.  I feel like they would have been upset if he was taking all the way and it ended up a ball.  Its probably another unwritten rule to not take a bases loaded walk with a lead too.

[dennyjones]

Professional baseball players, other sports also, are like individual free agents although they are under contract with a team.    If a guy's stats aren't good, he's gone.   Players want to perform their best at all times to ensure/enhance their ability at a bigger paycheck.    Kudos to him.  

[RFKFREAK]

This.is.dumb.

I'll grant you I haven't watched baseball consistently for many years now but I've never heard of this "unwritten rule."

[Double Mocha Man]

It's an unwritten rule not to show up the other team.  But swinging at a 3-0 pitch is no brainer.  He could have hit into a double play.  Now, if he had bunted that might have been considered a little unsportsmanlike.

[mclaren4life]

Again it’s stupid. These aren’t kids they are pros. Score as many runs as you can. The other team doesn’t like it then stop them. Nobody bitches like this when Oklahoma drops 76 on some poor division 3 school during the first month and a half of college football. 

[ChetGPT]

What if Tatis Jr. takes the pitch and it's a strike? Let's say he gets K'd. Then the pitcher works his way out of the inning and some asshole from the Rangers hits a Grand Slam in the lower half of the inning? Suddenly the game is back on? Or is it not? What if he needs X amount of RBI's or Homeruns or something to earn a bonus? 

Baseball? >>> This is one of the dumbest things in sports. I say no more unwritten rules. If you want it to be a rule that who ever is leading at the end of the 8th wins then only play 8 innings. ... DUMB DUMB DOUBLY DUMB. 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by ChetlovesMer

[TourSpoon]

It's an unwritten rule...in an unwritten rule book! Obviously it hasn't been checked out in a while. 

[Double Mocha Man]

23 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

What if Tatis Jr. takes the pitch and it's a strike? Let's say he gets K'd. Then the pitcher works his way out of the inning and some asshole from the Rangers hits a Grand Slam in the lower half of the inning? Suddenly the game is back on? Or is it not? What if he needs X amount of RBI's or Homeruns or something to earn a bonus? 

Baseball? >>> This is one of the dumbest things in sports. I say no more unwritten rules. If you want it to be a rule that who ever is leading at the end of the 8th wins then only play 8 innings. ... DUMB DUMB DOUBLY DUMB. 

 

The Mariners don't play by that unwritten rule because they don't hit grand slams.

[Big C]

I read somewhere that the Padres coach threw Tatis under the bus. I didn't get that at all from watching the video. In essence, all he said was, "We gave him the sign to take the next pitch. He missed it and that's a learning opportunity." 

Aside from some mild criticisms from the Rangers coach (who I don't agree with), I don't see anyone giving Tatis a hard time. Honestly this seems to be the MLB media blowing a story out of proportion.

[bweiss711]

1 hour ago, Big C said:

Aside from some mild criticisms from the Rangers coach (who I don't agree with), I don't see anyone giving Tatis a hard time. Honestly this seems to be the MLB media blowing a story out of proportion.

Does the pitcher throwing behind the next batter count as someone else giving Tatis a hard time? It's a story because it's real. Unwritten rules are something that players actually believe exist, and it makes the sport look stupid.

[Big C]

10 minutes ago, bweiss711 said:

Does the pitcher throwing behind the next batter count as someone else giving Tatis a hard time? It's a story because it's real. Unwritten rules are something that players actually believe exist, and it makes the sport look stupid.

Fair point. 

[shanksalot]

The only problem I have with it is Tatis missed the sign to take the pitch. That should not happen. The grand slam was a no no, but I am sure the pitcher threw one down the middle ASSUMING Tatis would not swing. This is like stealing second base when you are ahead by ten runs in the ninth inning. Just rubbing it in. In the "old" days the next batter up would get hit by the first pitch thrown. All evened up then move on. 

[ShaftFarmer]

And the funniest thing is next day the Phillies were up 7-0 and then were down 7-9 by the 6th. The people complaining the Padres game (10-3) was "in-hand" have obviously never played sports. Screw your "unwritten" rules