Baseball’s unwritten rules are unappealing

Some of them are thankfully fading away

Don’t swing at a 3-0 pitch!

Tony LaRussa, near the end of his second tenure with the Chicago White Sox lost the respect of his player and his team by criticizing Yermin Mercedes for swinging at a 3-0 pitch during a White Sox rout, a pitch Mercedes hit out of the park. That pitch was thrown by a position player Willans Astudillo and the home run gave the Sox a 16-4 lead. It was only three and half seasons ago in May of 2021. That incident defined LaRussa’s old school-ness and is thankfully now a relic of baseballs days that are history.

The old school that LaRussa comes from was overly concerned about ‘showing up’ a team or pitcher. Particularly if the away team was putting a whupping on the home team. It was more acceptable to bludgeon an opponent when beating them in your home ballpark. Swinging at a 3-0 pitch coming from a position player is 100% fine. It would also be fine if that pitch were thrown by an actual member of the pitching staff!  Player’s salaries are contingent upon their overall performance and statistics are a big part of that evaluation. With nearly every player in today’s lineup capable of hitting a home run, coming back from six or more runs is not a wild a concept. Swinging at a 3-0 pitch when up 9-3 in the sixth inning in no way shows up the opponent. You want to stop a hitter from hitting a 3-0 pitch for a home run? Don’t throw a batting practice fastball expecting it to be taken!

Not a third time!

And when a player hits home runs in consecutive at-bats it used to be that the player should not swing at the first pitch in the next at-bat. As if playing nice was part of baseball! Fortunately, it rarely happens anyway.

There are many other archaic unwritten rules of baseball that are going away

Sign Stealing

With Pitch-com there’s less worry than ever regarding baserunners doing pitch sign-stealing i.e.… baserunners deciphering catcher’s signs to the pitcher and relaying those signs to batters. It didn’t used to be that way.

To combat pitch sign-stealing the National League in 1961 banned ‘mechanical devices’ at the ballpark, which meant cameras and lenses that could be used to steal signs as was reputedly the case when on October 3, 1951, New York Giant’s Bobby Thomson hit his famous pennant-winning home run off the Dodger’s Ralph Branca. Thomson forever denied getting the sign.

The use of electronic equipment is not specifically forbidden by MLB rules, but in 2001, Sandy Alderson, while serving as executive vice president for baseball operations of MLB, issued a memorandum stating that teams cannot use electronic equipment to communicate with each other during games, especially for the purpose of stealing signs. *Wikipedia

Stealing the third base coach’s signs remains okay, however. Whatever happens on the field is between the players and as provided outside interference is avoided, anything goes.

Bunting to break up a no-hitter

Always regarded as bad form, bunting to break up a no hitter is still looked at with distaste even if the reasons are understood. With today’s starting pitchers rarely pitching beyond the seventh inning, bunting to break up a combined no-hitter seems less egregious. But the score of the game should really dictate the action. Leading 8-0 while the pitcher is throwing a perfect game or no-hitter, bunting with one or two out in the ninth inning does seem a little bush league since the outcome of the game is decided and the purpose should not be to ruin the pitcher’s chance. I say in that situation, swing away, get a hit.

On May 26, 2001, D’Backs Curt Schilling was working on a perfect game vs. the Padres when catcher Ben Davis bunted for a base-hit with one out in the eighth inning. The Padres trailed 2-0 at the time. It was referred to as a ‘the Chicken Bunt in the San Diego Union-Tribune. But at 2-0 the game was far from being over. Getting on base to bring the tying run to the plate was a good baseball play – not breaking an unwritten rule.

If your player gets hit by a pitch after hitting a home run earlier in the game, your pitcher must drill one of the opposing players as soon as possible

This is a leftover unwritten rule that still pops up every now and again but is largely absent from today’s game.

Don’t use your closer in a tie game on the road. This one has all but disappeared since using your team’s best reliever in high leverage situations has won over the quaint idea that you wait for your team to score the go-ahead run before bringing in your closer to shut the door. By waiting, the game might be over already!

There are a few unwritten rules that still make sense

‘Don’t walk the Leadoff’ hitter is an example of solid baseball strategy. It’s a bad thing to do and if you want to call it an unwritten rule, fine. The team issuing that leadoff walk wishes it didn’t happen and there’s no risk in dissing or showing up anyone.

Don’t make the first or third out at third base another good strategy. The player can still score from second on a hit with two outs and might be moved over to third with one out by the batter.

Stealing bases when your team is way ahead late in the game. I think this one is probably the one that’s most still in effect. It is merely stat padding and should be frowned upon. In no way does stealing 2^nd or 3^rd base with a big lead help your team win the game.

Don’t step on the pitcher’s mound on your way back to the dugout after making an out. My son Gordon was a pitcher and HATED when players did that whether intentionally or not. The mound is a sacred hill. The only reason for a batter to step on the mound is to bug the pitcher.

The hidden ball trick is bush league

But I can’t help but be delighted every time it happens! Watch HOFer Todd Helton do it to Matt Carpenter in 2013. NFL football has some tricky plays, but the hidden ball trick is something unique in all sports. The trickery happened before the play does. Yet it still somehow feels kind of icky.

On our podcast earlier this year Gordon mentioned that showing up players is not a thing like it used to be. Pitchers still try not to visibly react to errors made by their fielders but sometimes it cannot be helped.

Baseball is better off having fewer and fewer unwritten rules.

About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and Substack.com.