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MLB is becoming a whipped sport.

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Baseball is about the only sport with unwritten rules. It’s tradition.

I think just about every sport has unwritten rules. It's the sort of expected behaviour and etiquette most participants generally adhere to.

Like you say, they develop over time and become traditions in each sport. Perhaps in some sports *cough*baseball*cough* you get more, and more complex and convoluted ones, than some other sports.
 
No, you take a pitch or two, when I played in the 70's and 80's (not professionally by any means.) we would have been benched for crushing a 3-0 pitch up that many runs with the bases loaded. I get it the game is different, I just liked it better the way it used to be played.

So many of baseball's "unwritten rules" are nonsense. Sorry, they are. The object of being "at bat" is to hit the ball. PERIOD. Balls and strikes are irrelevant to that goal, as is the score. Your job as a batter is to get a hit. Look what happened in the Jays Phillies game the other day.

If you don't like a batter hitting your 3-0 groove ball . . . PITCH BETTER.
 
On A 3 balls no strike count with 1 out. The pitcher lobbed it up there just for a strike.
Manny Machado is lucky the pitcher threw behind and not at him. Beaning the batter is accepted in that case. Just stay away from his head.
I just saw it today.
Heck a couple years ago Roger Clemens was pitching BP to his sons team and his son hit a homer on him. His next time up dad knocked him down.
Clemens is a Hall of Fame JERK.
 
I don’t consider a baseball a deadly weapon. Even if the pitcher’s intentions are to hit the batter. That’s my point. This is the first time I have ever heard anybody (sportscasters, players, friends,) call deliberately throwing at a batter “assault with a deadly weapon”. If you believe it is I suppose that’s your opinion.

Tony Conigliaro, Kirby Puckett, Dickie Thon, Luis Salazar (but not a pitch), and Juan Encarnacion (same) would disagree.
 
So many of baseball's "unwritten rules" are nonsense. Sorry, they are. The object of being "at bat" is to hit the ball. PERIOD. Balls and strikes are irrelevant to that goal, as is the score. Your job as a batter is to get a hit. Look what happened in the Jays Phillies game the other day.

If you don't like a batter hitting your 3-0 groove ball . . . PITCH BETTER.
Exactly. If you don't want the batter to hit a grand slam, don't serve it up to him. They're professionals. Little League rules are for Little Leaguers.
 
For the record, I'm in favor of unwritten rules that are about respect for your opponent. But when people cry about the other team continuing to score with a good lead, it's pathetic.

7+ runs have been scored in one inning dozens of times. There are ten occasions where a team has scored more than 13 in an inning and the record is 17. So going up by 11 is nothing.
 

TexLaw

Fussy Evil Genius
I've never, ever been a fan of throwing at a better because a batter did his job. If a team doesn't like a grand slam on a 3-0 count that adds to a7 run lead, then don't give up 7 runs, don't load the bases, don't miss with the first 3 pitches, and then don't serve up a meatball over the plate.

Now, it's altogether a different story were that batter to showboat around the bases like he just won the World Series, cured cancer, and saved the Earth from an alien attach. That fellow and his teammates might want to get their affairs in order.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
If it's not in the rule book it's not a rule. Time for a few sports cliches: It aint over till it's over. Any time can come back from that deficit, you keep swinging until the games over.
Yes, look at the '84 Tigers. They never gave up.
 
The whole "unwritten rules" are a total crock. bases loaded and his not suppose to swing on 3-0. Forget that noise.
Has the game changed that much? You never, ever swing on a 3-0 pitch. If you don't swing you can't get out worst thing is you get your first strike. Or you are walked, which in this case gets you a run without risking an out.
You never, ever swing on a 3-0 pitch.

EXcept, of course, when you get a grand slam.
 
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I guess I'm a purist because they took the fun out of the game a long time ago....and it really bothers me to see the home plate umpire call a ball 6" off the plate a strike. How the hell is a batter supposed to take a pitch when the umps aren't consistent with their calls?
 

Owen Bawn

Garden party cupcake scented
I guess I'm a purist because they took the fun out of the game a long time ago....and it really bothers me to see the home plate umpire call a ball 6" off the plate a strike. How the hell is a batter supposed to take a pitch when the umps aren't consistent with their calls?
Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux had Hall of Fame careers by consistently hitting their spot... which was 4-6 inches off the plate.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I truly hope next season is back to normal. Considering spring training begins end of February.....just 4 months away... I don’t know.

It just hasn’t felt right this year.
 
Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux had Hall of Fame careers by consistently hitting their spot... which was 4-6 inches off the plate.

Well, not in the first innings. Both are on record as saying they would hit the outside edge and, if they got the call, they would start moving that pitch a bit further out each time. As soon as the Ump called a ball, back to the black, and start the whole process over again.
 

JCarr

More Deep Thoughts than Jack Handy
Some sport has to pick up what pro hockey dropped...why not baseball? 😜
 
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