Unwritten Rules

A little chin music to keep a batter honest never hurt anybody, right? How long is it acceptable to admire a long home run from the batter’s box? I know you’re not supposed to talk about it while one is happening, but can you believe this guy has a no-hitter through seven innings?

Baseball has so many unwritten rules. In my opinion, it’s part of what makes the sport interesting, and it absolutely sets itself apart from all other sports in that respect. Baseball has so many unwritten rules even its players have trouble remembering them.* In the last few weeks, these rules have been talked about more because of several ejections and suspensions to pitchers for purposely throwing at batters. Oftentimes this is done in retaliation of opposing players breaking some unwritten rule. I understand this part of the game, and I find it exciting to a certain extent. However, there is a difference between sending a message and putting a players career at risk by throwing at his head. Jered Weaver has great control and still felt he had to send a message by throwing at Alex Avila’s head. That’s dangerous. Throw at his hip or something.

*A-Rod wasn’t aware that it is forbidden, according to baseball code, for base-runners cross the pitcher’s mound on the way back to the dugout after an out. Dallas Braden wasn’t very pleased with this, and decided to let everyone know. Braden’s spat with A-Rod is one of only two things the dude is known for; his perfect game against Tampa Bay was only a few weeks after the A-Rod debacle. Braden was a non-descript A’s pitcher before these two things happened and has been non-descript since.

A big part of baseball for the past 100 years is sign stealing. Traditional sign stealing, such as when a runner at second relays the upcoming pitch to the batter, is fine if you can get away with it, according to most baseball insiders. Recently the Toronto Blue Jays have been accused of stealing signs using a spectator in the outfield stands. Allegedly, this fan seated in perfect view of the batter would make arm gestures depending on the sign the catcher would give. Stealing signs using an off-field source, such as this, is a huge no-no in the baseball unwritten rule world. ESPN Outside the Lines has a great article about the Blue Jays situation found here.

The numbers do show some historical home run totals from the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. Last season several Jays had very dramatic home-road splits. Jose Bautista, for example, had a 1.118 OPS (on-base plus slugging) with 33 homers at home but an .879 OPS and 21 long balls on the road. Batista is good everywhere, but he’s especially good at home. The great Vernon Wells had a .990 OPS and 21 home runs in Toronto last season but dropped to .699 and 10 away from Rogers Centre. This past winter he was traded to the Angels and has a .552 OPS in home games in Anaheim.

The Rogers Centre in 2010 was among the top 3 percent of home run ballparks since 1950. But only the Blue Jays, and not their opponents, got a home run boost in Toronto. On the road, the Jays hit home runs in 4 percent of plate appearances in which they made contact. This is slightly above the AL average of 3.6 percent. At home, their home run rate on contact jumped to 5.4 percent, which is a home-field home run advantage of seven times most team’s road-home increase. I’m not sure if these numbers alone make it suspicious, but it is very interesting. Its also interesting to know that opposing team bullpen pitchers are very astute fan observers.* Teams like the Yankees and Red Sox have been using multiple signs at all times in the Rogers Centre to completely avoid any chance of sign stealing.

*It was opposing team’s bullpens who began calling out the Blue Jays for the sign stealing.

Anyway, sign stealing and unwritten rules are part of baseball, like it or not. It made me really interested in finding more unwritten rules. I found an article here that talks about unwritten rules you might not know. Most of them seem to be good sportsmanship code, like “Don’t work the count when your team is up or down by alot.” Others seem kind of funny, like “When hit by a pitch, don’t rub the mark.” This just makes me think of the Family Guy episode in which Peter hurts his knee. Hilarious.

You’re also not supposed to swing at the first pitch after back-to-back home runs. I guess that is good to know next time I’m hitting fifth in the Brewers lineup after Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. I wouldn’t want to get the ball thrown at my head next time I’m up to bat.