MLB's "Unwritten Rules" Are Ruining The Sport

today's video is sponsored and is based on articles originally written on the athletic for the best ad free baseball coverage head to theathletic.comright to receive 40 off a yearly subscription i honestly never thought i would have to make one of these types of videos ever again but here we are two years later and people still think home runs and celebrating should be illegal even after mlb's own let the kids play campaign it is clear that baseball is still stuck in the old man yells at cloud phase it has always been in for those of you who are unaware of the situation let's get you all caught up to speed last monday in a game between the san diego padres and the texas rangers 21 year old padres shortstop fernando tati's junior hit a grand slam in the top of the eighth inning to take a 14-3 lead which looked fine for all the old heads out there he didn't do an insane bat flip he didn't sit and admire his home run for too long he didn't really do anything but it is clear that the rangers had a problem with it since the next pitch was thrown behind manny machado for payback the rangers were upset with tati's junior for breaking one of what is known as baseball's unwritten rules a set of unofficial rules that are as old as the game itself and they were originally put in place as a way for players to preserve each other's jobs by not humiliating one another since at the time rosters weren't as big and there weren't nearly as many professional teams but in modern day mlb the unwritten rules are still in place projecting the voices of older generations of how they believe the game should be played just a few of the 9 000 unwritten rules include not looking at your home run for too long no bat flipping or obsessive celebrations no bunting to break up a no-hitter and the rule that fernando tati's junior broke which i didn't even know was a rule until this happened do not swing on a 3-0 count while your team is ahead so the rangers who walked two batters before him and then threw three straight balls to him were upset that tatis jr had the audacity to swing at a fastball instead of giving the pitcher a free strike got it after the game fernando tati's junior said i know a lot of unwritten rules i was kind of lost on this those experiences you have to learn probably next time i'll take a pitch ah yes because baseball needs the most electrifying player in the sport taking pitches instead of hitting grand slams i'm sure the younger generation of baseball fans that mlb has been looking for would love to see that instead the worst part about this whole situation is that this is not the first time something like this has happened and it will certainly not be the last it's almost like we're in a cycle of dullness where a young player will come up and do something exciting then we'll be told to never do it again and be forced to apologize to the public just like our friend david bodie from two years ago who hit a walk off grand slam while the cubs were down three nothing in the ninth and then he had to apologize for showing an ounce of emotion or what about ralda kunu junior who hit too many home runs and got 97 to the ribs because of it it is very frustrating since these situations are in direct contrast from mlb's let the kids play campaign from the last two seasons it was a campaign that mlb pushed to try and show that the culture of baseball has changed celebrations and bat flips are going to be accepted and younger stars are going to be pushed into the spotlight but at the same time tim anderson will do one of the best bat flips of the year and that he will get pegged in his netstat bat for it it is almost false advertising in a way fans are being shown one thing in commercials but in the actual games players are being punished for doing that exact thing it may just be me but it still baffles me why so many older fans managers players mostly pitchers are fixated on something that should be a non-issue instead of watching the batter trot around the bases to make sure he doesn't hurt your feelings how about you worry about i don't know literally anything else the score the next batter anything really i suppose it may be due to the nature of the way people grew up in the sport of baseball some learn to play the game a certain way and then it gets passed down for generations but in modern day baseball this old school way of thinking and the unwritten rules do more damage than they do good for the sport and if guys have a problem with it it's time to get over it as baseball continues to progress in the age of the home run and it doesn't look like there's anything we can do to stop it it is time that we collectively embrace it we shouldn't have to analyze every moment on a homer to make sure everyone was being respectful this isn't 1920 instead home runs should be celebrated as one of the more exciting parts of the game and players who celebrate their homers shouldn't have to worry about them or one of their teammates taking one to the dome because of it the truth is when baseball players show off their raw emotion and personality it makes for some of the most memorable and entertaining moments like this home run robbery from lorenzo kane or this walk-off grand slam from bryce harper or even this moment when mike trout and albert pujols mocked fernando rodney which was six years ago but it is so rare that something like this happens that it is still stuck in my head all of these moments in one way or another broke an unwritten rule and if these players follow traditional baseball code we would probably forget that a lot of these moments even happened could you imagine the jose bautista home run from the 2015 alds with no backflip no stare none of his teammates coming out of the dugout no i couldn't either a world without that jose bautista backflip is a world that i wouldn't want to live in but seriously i think fernando tati's junior said it best after that game this game is hard for everyone so why not just celebrate and have fun the way you want to have fun with a lot of influx of younger more exciting talent from all over the globe it is starting to look like baseball is evolving finally older more traditionalist ideas are on their way out and hopefully the unwritten rules follow suit but what can mlb do themselves to help that process other than an advertisement campaign well mlb does have a lot on their hands right now with the new cba coming up and making sure you know the season doesn't crash and burn to the ground but for those of you who don't know mlb has hired a new head of on-field punishment this year it is possible that in the future we will see longer suspensions for players that try to throw at other players for celebrating just as a way to cement that this is the direction the sport is going but other than that it is really up to the players to hold each other accountable and for the players that aren't able to accept getting backflipped on just don't get beat next time all right it's done i'm never talking about this again thank you all for watching and let me know in the comment section below what you think about mlb's unwritten rules if you enjoyed be sure to drop a like on the video and subscribe to the channel and once again i'd like to thank the athletic for sponsoring this video they got some great storytelling and some of the best writers like ken rosenthal and jason stark so make sure to check out the link in the description it is a really great deal but thanks again everybody and i will see you all in the next one i'm so sick of these games every single day i started feeling the same another goes by guess i'm running running late it's so difficult when i have no idea what comes tomorrow

Channel: Dawson Wright

Views: 72,484

Keywords: mlb, unwritten rules, unwritten rules baseball, mlb unwritten rules, fernando tatis jr, fernando tatis jr grand slam, baseball, mlb 2020, mlb bat flips, jose bautista bat flip, ronald acuna jr, braves, mets, yankees, dodgers, astros, astros cheating, rob manfred, MLB's Unwritten Rules, Are, Ruining, The, Sport, dawson wright, dawson wright mlb, mike trout, aaron judge, texas rangers, san diego padres

Id: Ls7d_i_9KFo

Length: 7min 39sec (459 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 22 2020