Yankees: Ranking the dumbest unwritten rules in baseball

You either love or hate baseball’s unwritten rules. If you love them, please click the “back” button.

Controversy — if you want to call it that — was sparked on Monday night when San Diego Padres slugger Fernando Tatis Jr. clubbed a grand slam against the Texas Rangers. What’s the problem with that? Well, he swung on a 3-0 pitch when his team was up 10-3 late in the game.

According to the unwritten rules boogeyman, that’s a BIG no-no. Rangers manager Chris Woodward took exception and immediately commented on the actions in dissenting fashion. Tatis’ own skipper Jayce Tingler didn’t approve of it either! And we have to say, this has to be the end of the road for this invisible etiquette that baseballers of yesteryear so dearly cling to. It’s almost dangerously puritanical.

Times change. Nothing has its place or holds its structure forever. That’s just how the world works. If you disagree, then perhaps you’re immortal. I don’t know what else to tell you.

But as we’re here conversing all day about unwritten rules, let’s rank the ones we really hate and get even more people angry. Ah, the beauty of the internet.

4. Pitchers must stay in dugout for rest of inning after being removed

Pitchers being forced to remain in the dugout is silly.

This seems like it was instituted to teach pitchers a lesson, for whatever reason?

When a manager removes a pitcher from the game in the middle of an inning, the unwritten rules say that pitcher must remain in the dugout until the inning ends. More times than not, a pitcher is getting removed mid-inning because he’s performing poorly … so we’re going to make him watch the rest unfold?

There’s quite literally no need for this. What’s the reasoning? To promote continuity? The bullpens are already separate from the dugout. Perhaps a starter coming out and remaining in the dugout makes the most sense, but even then, what if they’re booed off the mound by the home crowd and don’t want to watch any more damage done?

Let them hit the showers and do what they’ve gotta do, especially if they had a bad outing. Don’t make them rip out their hair out as they watch more damage being inflicted.

The unwritten rules are so, so wise, and dictate the game, and we’ve also never once written them down. Gotcha.

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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