HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Some unwritten MLB rules that players follow in games (OT)

Support Forums
>
Prostate Cancer
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 8/17/2019 1:58 PM (GMT 0)
Since it's clear we have a number of avid MLB baseball fans here on the forum (and I'll count myself among them), I thought it might be fun to post the article below that I spotted on a sports website.

It's OT, but it's also a very Interesting comment on some "unwritten rules" of baseball. That is, "rules" that you won't find in the official rulebook, but which MLB players follow.

Things like:

Don't talk about a no-hitter while it's in progress.
Don't steal a base if your team is significantly ahead
Don't spend too much time admiring your home run
Don't bunt to break up a no-hitter

and even this

Don't throw a curve ball to a fellow pitcher

as well as a bunch of others, which we have all probably observed while watching games, but which we never really thought about.

And if there's a common theme among these "unwritten" rules, it's that disrespecting your opponent in baseball "simply isn't done."

Yay. That's a big reason I like the sport. It's got that kind of class to it.

Enjoy:

http://www.gamedaynews.com/baseball/the-unwritten-rules-of-baseball-that-are-impossible-to-follow/?utm_source=tb&utm_medium=msn-defaulthomepage-tb&utm_term=20+unwritten+rules+of+major+league+baseball-https%3a%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fhivemedia-images%2Fcreatives%2Fuwb%2F1_uwb.jpg&utm_content=258805190&utm_campaign=2551044-tb&utm_source=tb&edge=1
Posted 8/18/2019 12:00 AM (GMT 0)
"Don't spend too much time admiring your home run"

I think this one has crumbled, going at least as far back as Reggie Jackson.

The rules in general make sense - don't grind it in and it won't get ground in on you.

A notable exception - I'd call a bunt on a no-hitter if my team was still in the game.
Posted 8/18/2019 1:31 PM (GMT 0)
PS, I tend to keep up with the standings, but don't often watch pro sports anymore. I'll tune in late in the game if score is close. The preposterously absurd salaries just turn me off.😮
Posted 8/18/2019 2:51 PM (GMT 0)
mattam -

I know, I know. I used to gasp myself whenever I would read about the stratospheric salaries those guys make just for hitting a ball with a stick. Now I just accept it as part of the craziness in the world.

But, just for the heck of it, I googled

how did MLB salaries get so high

and found an article

"Why are Baseball Players Getting Paid So Much Money?"

at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexreimer/2015/12/07/mlb-free-agent-contracts-are-more-costly-than-ever/#76c460b4d2bb

It's an article already several years old, but it tells us:

"The average value of an MLB franchise is currently $1.2 billion. The biggest reason for this influx of money is the proliferation of lucrative media rights agreements. On top of MLB's $12.4 billion TV deal with FOX and TBS, many teams have inked their own $1+ billion TV contracts in recent years." (And remember, these are 2015 numbers!)

The numbers are probably even crazier today. I joked with my sons once that if any of us could have somehow managed to get on a MLB team roster, and then do just horrible, like batting .005, putting up an ERA of 52, etc., still, the severance pay we would likely have gotten as the team booted us off as quickly as possible would still have probably been a gazillion dollars! Crazy!

But, wow, nice work if you can get it!
Posted 8/18/2019 4:04 PM (GMT 0)
Article in local paper
http://www.startribune.com/north-score-why-don-t-we-try-writing-down-the-unwritten-rules/550579892/
Posted 8/19/2019 2:47 AM (GMT 0)
Dustin Pedroia has hardly played in three years, is going back for more surgery.
I doubt he will play again in the 2 or 3 years and some tens of millions left on his contract. I love the guy and know his knee was wrecked in the line of duty. But, but, but ....
Posted 8/19/2019 1:58 PM (GMT 0)
Given the difficult of actually bunting for a hit if I was in the late innings of a no hitter, I'd actually hope that one of the batters would try it.
Posted 8/19/2019 2:43 PM (GMT 0)
I have never viewed a no-hitter as awe inspiring. True, most no-hitters are the result of a great pitching performance. On the other hand a pitcher could get a no-hitter while walking any number of batters.

A perfect game however, is magical and requires a true team effort.
Posted 8/19/2019 6:59 PM (GMT 0)
What is this thread about?
Posted 8/19/2019 7:24 PM (GMT 0)
Baseball
Posted 8/19/2019 8:00 PM (GMT 0)
2019guy,

It is ostensibly about nothing--and has had various slides into something, but quickly devolves back to nothingness. Earlier, someone posited that this thread is really a written version of the kinds of conversation that happen around the BBQ or a table of buddies sipping a few cold ones after work.

It is about nothing--and everything, all at the same time.
Posted 8/19/2019 8:01 PM (GMT 0)
OOPS...i thought I was responding to the thread about nothing....but unwritten baseball rules are almost nothing....but real, just the same.
Posted 8/19/2019 10:46 PM (GMT 0)
Maybe it's noteworthy that a baseball game score always starts out nothing to nothing, but never ends that way? Is there something to that? (OOPS, wrong thread also!)
Posted 8/19/2019 10:51 PM (GMT 0)
Not for nothing, any thread that takes our minds off the joys of prostate cancer is fine with me.

You throw at my head, I'm charging the mound....
Posted 8/20/2019 12:13 AM (GMT 0)
For all of you who want to believe that baseball is the last bastion of good sportsmanship...it wasn't all that long ago that Enos Slaughter sharpened his spikes so he could attempt to maim Jackie Robinson.

So, yeah, there are unwritten rules--and everyone who plays knows them and mostly follow them. But, it's not about sportsmanship or respect. It's just part of the game.
Posted 8/21/2019 1:13 AM (GMT 0)

halbert said...
For all of you who want to believe that baseball is the last bastion of good sportsmanship...it wasn't all that long ago that Enos Slaughter sharpened his spikes so he could attempt to maim Jackie Robinson.

Not unlike lots of prostrate cancer questions and issues, truth and facts are hard to come by, and rarely tidy.

The incident mentioned happened in 1947, 72 long years ago. Southern boy, and later Hall of Fame member, Enos Slaughter did indeed spike Hall of Fame member, Jackie Robinson. Fact is Enos was an 'old school' player who, like Ty Cobb, always kept his spikes sharp, and many other players got the same treatment from him. Some called him a 'dirty player', but he certainly didn't sharpen his spikes just to maim Robinson. Jackie was a marvel, and put up with more crap than he ever deserved, doing it with amazing grace. How Jackie was treated by many players and fans was poor sportsmanship and worse!

We will never know what Slaughter's true motives were that day with any certainty. He denied any malicious intent to his dying day.

Gary....former Brooklyn Dodger and forever Jackie Robinson fan.
Posted 9/6/2019 4:00 PM (GMT 0)
1.Throw at the batter on a squeeze play
2. Don't cross in front of the pitchers mound after committing an out and while going back to the dugout.
3. Don't ask the bat boy to get you some balls.

Post Edited (Devil Dawg) : 9/6/2019 10:07:51 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 9/6/2019 6:16 PM (GMT 0)
I for one would like to see ties allowed, but only after 18 innings.
Posted 9/7/2019 1:27 PM (GMT 0)
I forgot this one: No crying.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply