Yankees: Ranking the dumbest unwritten rules in baseball

3. Take on a 3-0 count when your team is up big

Why are we going to give the pitcher a free pass? These are the unwritten rules?

Let’s start here since this is what we’re all jabbering about. In a society that seems to push back against participation trophies, it’s one of the bigger mysteries as to why it’s such an outrage to swing on a 3-0 count when your team has a healthy lead. Are the big bad tough guys scared of losing by even more runs?! Oh please, don’t score more!!!

Why should ANY team take their foot off the gas pedal at any point? How often do baseball games truly get out of hand? We’ll see a 10-run victory here and there, but that’s it. An invisible doctrine that dictates when a player should swing his bat is as arbitrary as it gets.

When Tatis Jr. stepped into the batter’s box with the bases loaded, it was the top of the eighth with one out and the Padres up seven runs. A few hours earlier, we saw the Atlanta Braves rally back in the bottom of the ninth to score four runs and walk it off against the Nationals by a score of 7-6. That was against one of the game’s best relievers in Daniel Hudson.

The Padres bullpen is much more erratic, too. We’re not saying they’d easily surrender seven runs in two innings, but what if Tatis takes 3-0, then fouls off a 3-1 pitch, then grounds into a double play and the Rangers score four runs in the bottom half of the eighth? Stuff happens in sports. If you can’t handle getting beaten too badly, then maybe don’t play?

2. Don’t bunt to break up a no-hitter

We kinda get it, but come on.

In order to throw a no-hitter, a pitcher has to have his absolute BEST stuff. On top of that, the defense has to be flawless. So if the defense is performing so well, why can’t they defend something as simple as a bunt?

How many times do fans/pundits complain about a player bunting poorly and costing the team? Or when a manager calls for an ill-timed bunt? It’s sure not a popular strategy, even when it’s the right call!

And when you dig deeper, a guy like Billy Hamilton, who was once upon a time the fastest player in the league and used bunting as a big source of his offensive game, batted .340 in 2014 when bunting. And he was the ABSOLUTE best at doing it! And that was his peak!

Perhaps just prepare for the bunt when speedy/poor hitters come up to the plate? Those are usually the guys who will attempt a bunt to break up a no-hitter. Plus, with the advent of shifts taking over the sport as the years progress, we’ve seen players bunt to the opposite side of the infield when the defense is on the other end.

Nowadays, you can’t be shifting on the defensive end to screw the hitter and not expect the hitter to find ways to beat it. No-hitter or not, defend the damn bunt. IT’S A BUNT! AND PART OF THE GAME!

1. Don’t showboat your home runs

This Unwritten Rules trend is going away, but people still whine about it.

RIP to Jose Fernandez, but the former Marlins ace embodied this issue as best he could in modern day baseball. The Atlanta Braves tried to silence the Marlins ace (and Bryce Harper earlier that season) when he hit his first career home run off starter Mike Minor and admired the shot for a moment after tossing his bat.

That didn’t fly with third baseman Chris Johnson or catcher Brian McCann, both of whom exchanged words with Fernandez before the benches cleared. What were they saying? “Hey man, please be respectful, our friend Mike feels very badly about having to deal with a very rudimentary aspect of his job! He’s got feelings too!”

But that was seven years ago. Now we’re seeing bat flips galore, though Tim Anderson drew criticism last year for his (what some deemed excessive) bat throw against the Royals after hitting a two-run blast in the fourth inning of a game in April. Perhaps we can call that “a bit much” but are we really going to head hunt after that? Can your ego not handle getting shown up for 30 seconds?

Why baseball has promoted being emotionless for this long is beyond us. The game to the average viewer is already boring enough, so stripping it of any animation seems almost like … the sport doesn’t want to grow its overall fan base? Do you think young kids are going to be enamored by someone hitting a walk-off homer only to calmly trot the bases after gently placing his bat in the appropriate spot so the other team doesn’t feel “as bad” about what they’ve done?

No. Throw bats. Punt bats. Do whatever. We’ll know when to draw the line when it gets too excessive. Every other sport celebrates and showboats and there aren’t brawls that immediately ensue. Celebrations and emotional reactions directly relate to people. This will help grow the game.

And I think we all have Jose Bautista to thank because that bat flip in the 2015 ALDS pretty much started the trend of everybody not giving a crap.

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