The Unwritten Canon, Revealed

[LBHalos17]

From ESPNs' Tim Kurkjian, with commentary and video from MLBers..

 

A very entertaining read/viewing.

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10964445/mlb-baseball-confusing-contradictory-unwritten-rules

 

[nando714]

Is this another Kurkjian montage

[maximus p]

 

Bryce Harper

[LBHalos17]

My bad!  Didn't see it was already posted under "unwritten Canons"..

 

--> Go to that thread!

[LBHalos17]

Thanks for correcting my mistake, Mods!  I looked for this to have been posted, but didn't recognize the title... DOH!

 

Anyway, I LOVE the "Unwritten Rules"!  They are what separates baseball from the constant show-boating of the nba and NFL.  Some are over-the-top and cloudy, but I think most players would agree on them.

 

I'd like to add my personal anecdote to the conversation.  I've hit 5 career home-runs; all of them in Sunday Rec.-League.  The Sunday league can get pretty serious (not as serious as beer-league,mens' softball tho), but usually it's just guys playing for love of the game.  We sometimes will face a team of young-bucks fresh out of College or Minor-League ball (my latest hr was a grannie off one of those gassers btw!), but mostly it's guys just having fun.

 

I remember the first hr I ever hit (a few years ago).  I hit a towering fly-ball that ended-up landing about 335' outside of the right-field fence.  When I hit it, I knew it was gone.  I glanced at it, and started trotting toward 1b.  I saw the right-fielder take a few back-steps toward the fence, and stop like he was camping under it so I slowed-down before reaching the bag.  He must've lost it in the air, because I saw it land and continued rounding the bases.  I did let out a, "That's right!" with a fist-pump mostly because of my own excitement at my first-ever bomb.  I finished rounding the bases in a modified-sprint. 

 

The other team understood my reaction as being part of my first hr (since my whole team came-out to congratulate me), and since their outfielder almost seemed to be deking me on the fly-ball.

 

Ever since my 2nd hr, I've put my head-down and RUN around the bases.  

 

To me, the "Rules" are about respecting the game and your opponent.  We've all won and lost; had successes and failures.  I don't want to celebrate like a jack-ass, because Karma will come back to make me look like an even bigger jack-ass later.

[Ohtaniland]

Thanks for correcting my mistake, Mods!  I looked for this to have been posted, but didn't recognize the title... DOH!

 

Anyway, I LOVE the "Unwritten Rules"!  They are what separates baseball from the constant show-boating of the nba and NFL.  Some are over-the-top and cloudy, but I think most players would agree on them.

 

I'd like to add my personal anecdote to the conversation.  I've hit 5 career home-runs; all of them in Sunday Rec.-League.  The Sunday league can get pretty serious (not as serious as beer-league,mens' softball tho), but usually it's just guys playing for love of the game.  We sometimes will face a team of young-bucks fresh out of College or Minor-League ball (my latest hr was a grannie off one of those gassers btw!), but mostly it's guys just having fun.

 

I remember the first hr I ever hit (a few years ago).  I hit a towering fly-ball that ended-up landing about 335' outside of the right-field fence.  When I hit it, I knew it was gone.  I glanced at it, and started trotting toward 1b.  I saw the right-fielder take a few back-steps toward the fence, and stop like he was camping under it so I slowed-down before reaching the bag.  He must've lost it in the air, because I saw it land and continued rounding the bases.  I did let out a, "That's right!" with a fist-pump mostly because of my own excitement at my first-ever bomb.  I finished rounding the bases in a modified-sprint. 

 

The other team understood my reaction as being part of my first hr (since my whole team came-out to congratulate me), and since their outfielder almost seemed to be deking me on the fly-ball.

 

Ever since my 2nd hr, I've put my head-down and RUN around the bases.  

 

To me, the "Rules" are about respecting the game and your opponent.  We've all won and lost; had successes and failures.  I don't want to celebrate like a jack-ass, because Karma will come back to make me look like an even bigger jack-ass later.

 

 

That's the way it should be.

[Taylor]

The bat flip at the 2:16 mark of this video is really douchey.

 

 

 

I wonder how long you spent looking for this piece of evidence to support your theory that Albert is a douche.

[jshep]

I wonder how long you spent looking for this piece of evidence to support your theory that Albert is a douche.

 

Answer: Too long

[jshep]

Dirk Hayhurst just wrote a pretty damn interesting counterpoint piece to this over at Deadspin.

 

"A Major League Pitcher's Guide to Baseball's Bullshit Unwritten Rules"

 

http://deadspin.com/a-major-league-pitchers-guide-to-baseballs-bullshit-unw-1585433770/all

 

There were times I took my sweet time on the mound, smiling at hitters who had whiffed on a change-up, or got caught looking at fastball on the black. I've talked plenty of shit and received just as much in return, but that's all harmless. When you start inventing rules for why it's OK for you to hurt someone for making you look bad, you're not a gamesman; you're an egomaniac.

 

Or you're an insecure old man worrying about about some fit, hungry kid taking your job. That's what this is really all about. There are 25 spots on an active roster, just 750 in all of MLB. Your young teammate is also your competition, and the inevitability of aging means he's going to eventually win. The unwritten rules—your rules—are about maintaining power, about putting him in his place. It's institutionalized bullying, and the only positive thing that can be said about it is that it may be a better release of tension than making it personal or resorting to physical hazing. I don't have a lot of sympathy for that argument, but making rookies buy dinner for vets is preferable to outright emotional abuse.

 

The best way to fix the system is to kill it. Baseball's unwritten rules justify hypocrisy, stupidity, and injury. They are feud propellant. Ego lubricant. Complete and utter bullshit. And they've been around for so long now that no one even knows why they're kept in service beyond the immature fear that the world would screech to halt without them. Well, three cheers for teaching our kids the importance of vigilantism. And God bless the first player to selfishly turn the other cheek.