The Unwritten Code

The AP’s Tim Dahlberg makes an interesting point regarding MLB’s unwritten code of conduct:

Sean Tracey is back riding a bus in the minor leagues because he didn’t do it. Randy Johnson soon might be riding the bench for a few games because he did.

The moral behind the recent tales of two pitchers seems to be this: It’s far more painful to violate baseball’s unwritten rules than it is the ones on paper.

Throw at a batter, get a slap on the wrist. Don’t throw at one and you’re suddenly wondering what became of those luxury hotel rooms and that tasty clubhouse spread.

So goes the decades-old debate over beanballs – and whether or not MLB is right in trying to put the kibosh on tit-for-tat retaliation. One side says that getting beaned is just part of the game – but if you think the other guy has crossed a line (an unwritten line, of course) you have every right to protect your own. The other side says that blatant headhunting is not only unsavory, it’s dangerous.

I think the most glaring fault of the warning system as it stands now is that it forces the umpires to judge the pitchers’ intent. There will be a few occasions where the pitcher is blatantly trying to nail the batter. But a wide majority of incidents aren’t so obvious – and trying to read someone’s mind is always fraught with peril.

Did Randy Johnson intend to hit Eduardo Perez? Did Vincente Padilla intend to plunk Saint AJ twice (a different question than would Padilla enjoy plunking Saint AJ twice)? Did straight-talking Ozzie Guillen order sad-sack Sean Tracey to drill Hank Blalock? The only people who know for sure are those involved (although Ozzie has made his stance crystal clear since then…).

Those who sympathize with the pitchers (like me, for instance) say that the pitchers aren’t entirely at fault. They might also say that the various elbow, wrist, ankle, and knee armor gives them carte blanche to lean over the plate (I swear I once saw Craig Biggio get hit in the elbow with a pitch that would have been a strike…). While I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, I do wonder when MLB will draw the line on the body armor.

Speaking of unwritten codes, I’ve also noticed that some players seem to be more ticked off at Jason Grimsley for breaking the code against “ratting out other players” (as Grimsley’s former employer so eloquently put it) than for violating MLB’s drug policy (not to mention federal law).

One of the players with hurt feelings is Terry Mulholland:

Now because of maybe just a handful of guys, people are looking at baseball players as criminals first and ballplayers second. It breaks my heart.

Boo fricking hoo. Can Mulholland be naïve enough to think that the public’s perception of ballplayers would be better if Grimsley kept his pie hole shut and didn’t name names? Come on, Terry – if the fans have turned against Mark McGwire, they don’t really have a lot of faith left in the rest of you…