Baseball Is In A Culture War

mlb is in the middle of a culture war that has been going on for over a hundred years today's players are talking more wearing more chains and flipping more bats than ever less than a decade ago players did this same thing and were thrown at hated by opponents hated by teammates and hated by fans all because they violated the unwritten rules a long list of secret baseball codes that has caused some of the most intense showdowns in mlb history bob gibson once got so mad at a player for breaking an unwritten rule he threw at him 15 years later during an old timers game these rules tell you what you're allowed to wear when you're allowed to hit a homer what you're allowed to eat and even where you're allowed to go to the bathroom today when jazz chisholm hits a home run he drops a floater going into first base pretends like he's driving a car going into third and euro steps before he touches home and the only retaliation he's faced was a pitcher mocking the euro step after striking him out 30 years ago he might have been out of the league for doing this and only five years ago players did way less and were thrown at surrounded by controversy and ostracized by the entire league many unwritten rules are still in force today while others are now accepted because of the few players who risk their health and careers doing things like this this backflip caused the benches to clear former pitcher goose gossage to call bautista a quote disgrace and the rangers to throw at him the next year shortly after bautista slid into second extremely hard for revenge which caused one of the craziest brawls and punches ever seen now compare that to a recent batflip controversy that started after javi baez celebrated a walk-off against amir garrett instead of hitting baez the next chance he got garrett struck him out screamed at him and stared him down garrett continued to do this every single time he played the cubs which cleared the benches a few times but never started an actual fight the next time baez faced garrett he started talking trash before he even got into the box hit a walk-off stared him down yelled at him used his bat as a broom to sweep him off the field tossed the bat towards garrett threw his helmet and took his jersey off before he even got to first base this has resulted in no punches thrown or hit by pitches but if this happened in any other era of baseball javi baez would be in big trouble because historically any celebration whatsoever was a punishable offense this is a clip of the yankees winning the 1943 world series and they just walk off the field like nothing happened in 2008 prince fielder pulled off one of the most legendary celebrations in history and was drilled for doing it in a spring training game in 2012 a role this chapman used to do somersaults after getting a save which pissed off so many people his own manager made him stop and in 2014 when asked what would happen if an mlb player celebrated like an nfl player tory hunter said he would beat him up even if he was on the same team but today lancelin grabs his nuts after striking people out the red sox put a player in a laundry cart and wheel him through the dugout after they hit a home run and in 2021 marcelo zuna stopped in the middle of the field and pretended to take a selfie after every single homer none of these players faced any consequences for doing this but historically players haven't been so lucky nolan ryan used to throw at batters just because they tried to bunt on him stan williams wanted revenge on so many hitters he literally kept a list of their names in his hat so he wouldn't forget to drill them in the 2 000 world series mike piazza had hit roger clemons so well that when he broke his bat clemons picked it up and immediately threw it at piazza and bob gibson once hit a batter during an old timers game just because the other batter hit a grand slam off him he also threw at reggie jackson in a different old timers game because reggie jackson hit a home run off him in a earlier old timers game these are examples of players getting hit just for being good when they break the unwritten rules the consequences can be a lot worse in the 2019 playoffs juan soto was the youngest and arguably the best player in baseball when he started doing the soto shuffle a signature move where he watches a ball lunges towards the pitcher and grabs his junk while staring him down soto's only consequence for this was an opposing pitcher grabbing his nuts in retaliation in fact soto got in a lot more trouble just for standing too close to home plate before his at-bat will smith screamed at him for doing this in 2020 and sono responded by hitting a 430 foot bomb staring at him and flipping his bat will smith yelled at the net's dugout and got revenge a year later when he drilled soda with a fastball the gnats responded the very next day by intentionally hitting freddy freeman juan soto broke the unwritten rule that states hitters should not stand too close to the box to try to time the pitcher ryan duran once threw at jimmy pearson for doing this but instead of waiting until he got to the plate he threw at him while he was in the on deck circle before he even got a chance to hit this rule has been passed down and modified dating all the way back to the beginning of baseball and it may seem stupid but it is nothing compared to some of the unwritten rules that were enforced back then but before we get to that a word from today's sponsor roman is a digital health clinic for men dedicated to help curing ed something that 52 percent of men will experience roman can help make sure ed will not get in the way of your big moment and all you have to do is go to getroman.com baseball doesn't exist where you'll get 15 off your first month plus free two-day shipping roman allows you to avoid the dreadfully awkward face-to-face interaction with your doctor and pharmacist by giving a free online evaluation all from the comfort and privacy of your own home the process is straightforward discreet and will help make sure you're ready for the occasion so get roman ready and go to getroman.com baseball doesn't exist today in the early days of baseball there was apparently an unwritten rule on how much lunch a player was allowed to eat eating too much lunch resulted in a player running until they nearly dropped there was an unwritten rule that banned players wives from coming to road games umpires used to enforce their own unwritten rule that automatically called any player sliding into first out no matter how safe they actually were there was also an unwritten rule that banned beards all together and as ridiculous as this rule is the yankees still enforce it in 2022 if you have hair that is deemed too long or a beard you cannot play for the yankees in 1991 yankees first baseman don mattingly refused to cut his mullet and despite being the team's captain was benched until he cut it amir garrett says that as a rookie his team banned him from wearing a specific pair of cleats because one player told them quote i don't like them they're too flashy ronald acuna says that during his rook a year freddy freeman made him take off his eye black because it covered too much of his face freeman says the braves organization has a rule against too much eye black as well as wearing sunglasses on your hat in a way that covers the logo and as recent as 2014 the diamondbacks had a bathroom stall that was bigger than the others they had an unwritten rule that says a player must play at least four years in the major leagues before they're allowed to use the big bathroom these unwritten rules dictate what players can wear or what they can do off the field but most unwritten rules dictate what a player can do on the field for example the unwritten rules that state what you're allowed to do in a blowout which has legitimately almost gotten players killed in 1993 46 year old nolan ryan drilled robin ventura he charged a mound and even though he was 20 years older than him he put him in a headlock and repeatedly punched him in the head this incident was sparked the night before when robin ventura scored from second on a single even though the white sox were winning 9-0 the general rule of thumb is that if your team is winning by six runs or more in the sixth inning or later you cannot score from second on a single adam dunn broke this same rule in a more extreme way after he not only tried to score but actually ran over a catcher even though his team was winning by 10 runs dunn was drilled for this tried to charge the mound but was tackled before he could get there the unwritten rule also states players should not steal in a blowout which is what barry bonds did in 1998 but phillies hit him for this but according to bonds it was only the fifth inning and the steal was justified so he charged the mound and tackled the pitcher fernando tatis jr is one of baseball's best youngest and flashiest players despite barely any mlb experience he dances in the dugout coordinates celebrations and pimps home runs on a regular basis nobody has ever thought at tatis for doing this he got in trouble for a completely different unwritten rule swinging on a 3-0 pitch during a blowout nurman mercedes not only did this while up 11 he did it against a position player on a pitch going 47 miles per hour the next day the twins got their revenge by trying to drill mercedes and his own manager said he didn't have a problem with how the twins handled it saying that what mercedes did was a quote mistake which he would face consequences for despite this basically everybody on the white sox went against their own manager and defended mercedes fernando tatis jr also swung at a 3-0 pitch in a blowout hit a home run then immediately was told by his manager not to do that predictably the next hitter manny machado was thrown at the overwhelming public consensus was that the unwritten role was dumb and tatis did nothing wrong but he apologized anyway which is ironic because tatis breaks the biggest unwritten rule on a regular basis the one that says a player should not celebrate flip their bat or show any emotion whatsoever today some players are punished for flipping their bats while others are not it is the rule that may have gotten the most players hurt but due to recent incidents it seems to be going extinct according to many the bat flip originated in korea where it happens regularly no matter how insignificant the hit is lee bum ho hit an umpire with a bat flip on a walk troy jon suck back flipped on a ball that went over a hundred feet foul and nobody cared players in latin america adopted this attitude and took it to a whole other level but in america batflips have been basically banned for years reggie jackson pulled off this celebration all the way back in the 70s and the indians screamed at him so much that he charged the mound after crossing the plate on a home run wayne gross once took too long rounding the bases after hitting a home run the pitcher was so mad he drilled him four years later during a practice game while they were on the same team in 1987 jeffrey leonard humiliated the cardinals by hitting four home runs and doing his one flap down celebration which consisted of him running around the bases with one arm by his side leonard was immediately hit by a pitch and booed every time he rounded the bases in the early 2000s bret boone was known for doing bad flips to the point that they made a commercial about it but even he was eventually hit in the face for doing it on the flip side around that time sami sosa began doing his signature home run hop ricky henderson pulled off some of the flashiest and best pimp jobs ever and tom lawless pulled off a bat flip almost identical to jose bautista all the way back in the 1987 world series none of them faced any repercussions for doing this if you were a star or did it in a big moment exceptions were made but if you were a below average player or a young player the consequences were worse than ever as a rookie in 2001 jimmy rollins was screamed at going around the bases was promised he'd get hit in the head his next at-bat for a bad flip as miniscule as this which the opposing pitcher referred to as quote little league compare that to this season when christopher morrell hit a bomb did a 180 through his bat hopped all the way down to first and celebrated the whole way around the bases this was his first major league home run in a game where the cubs were winning 6-0 and he faced zero consequences but the only reason he didn't get the same treatment as jimmy rollins were the dozens of players who essentially sacrificed their health and reputation to normalize this behavior carlos gomez was a notorious bat flipper who was intentionally hit responded by hitting a bomb flipping his bat and staring down the pitcher while going to first ryan mccann waited for him at home plate confronted him and the bench is cleared in 2014 garrett cole also confronted him after he flipped his bet on a triple starting another brawl gomez was suspended for this but garrett cole was not gomez kept flipping his bat and ended up leading the league and hit by pitches two years in a row despite not even playing full seasons that same year yasiya puig baseball's best young player at the time caused a string of bench clearing altercations involving madison bumgarner which started with a seemingly innocent bafflip bryce harper also pimped a home run that year in the playoffs which led to retaliation and a huge brawl he was also drilled a week into his career solely for being a young and flashy player all three of these players landed on the list of most hated players in baseball despite all being at one point some of the most talented and young players in the league fans and opponents seem to hate the way they played the very next season jose bautista launched the batflip that changed everything he was drilled punched and landed number one on mlb's most hated players list just like harper gomez and puig bautista paid a heavy price for his bat flip but unlike them it was also celebrated a snowboarder did his batflip in the olympics a badflip was made as a celebration in nhl 17 and the athletic even ranked it the sixth greatest moment in baseball history to many players and fans this play made bautista a villain but to others it made him an instant legend and this showed with the next generation of players like derek dietrich who in 2019 hit this monster home run and stared at it for what felt like 10 minutes the pirates did what teams have done for years they immediately drilled him and started a massive fight despite this intimidation dietrich came up later hit another bomb and pulled off another pimp drop dietrich went on to hit three more home runs against the pirates in a single game and pimped and celebrated each one like he'd never been thrown at in the first place later in the season a pirate's pitcher admitted to purposely throwing near dietrich's head for revenge which spiraled into more trash talking and amir garrett going directly from the mound to fight the entire pirates team dietrich was being targeted and a radio broadcaster even said his dead grandfather would be ashamed of his home run antics but dietrich was also receiving a ton of support and notoriety which may have inspired tim anderson to do this tim crushes this ball he throws the bat the ball goes the royals immediately confronted him and hit him in his next at-bat which somehow ended in him getting ejected and even suspended for a game but tim anderson was completely unbothered he pulled off an identical bat flip a week later with no repercussions went on to win the batting title a silver slugger became an all-star pull off another iconic backflip in the field of dreams game and this bad flip against the royals that ended in him getting suspended has been used as marketing for mlb ever since and literally turned him into a star in the past three seasons baseball has seen some of the best bat flips and most dramatic dugout celebrations in history and thanks to people like tim anderson nobody has to get hit in the head for doing it

Channel: Baseball Doesn't Exist

Views: 2,877,861

Keywords:

Id: FcRJ3XFeULM

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 10 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/reuben_withfries]

Is this video from 2019? The war is over, the younger generation won lol

[u/[deleted]]

There are no unwritten rules. There are just people willing to assault others to keep things like they understand.

[u/whenwefell]

This guy really needs an editor. Jumps around and never really lands on one clear cohesive argument.

[u/MankuyRLaffy]

I want more bat flips and especially guys dancing on the logo pre-game, I want drama and intensity.

[u/black-ra1n54]

Yeah...I cannot find anything on that being reasoning for the Nolan Ryan-Robon Ventura fight.

I have heard it was because Ryan hit a Sox player in Spring Training, I have also heard it was just because Ryan would hit players a lot, and the White Sox players all agreed to charge if they were the next one hit.

That is my favorite theory as you see Ventura take a couple steps to first before charging.