One more reason baseball can take its "Unwritten Code" and shove it

If you want to throw at a guy because he's crowding the plate or showboating, I've got no problem with that.

You throw at some rookie because he violated some piddly rule of etiquette, that's just dumb.

 

Billy Martin might beg to differ ... didn't he get a broken arm from tangling with a pitcher?

 

A pitcher of beer? Probably.

 

When I play with my kids and I get the Reds and Orange properties either side of Free Parking, I would offer them "Corner insurance" if I had lots of houses or hotels. Each time they approached that intersection, they could pay me $200 and get not pay rent if they landed on a property.
Was great fun.
Now they are older and they beat me regularly.
(And we also played the "free parking" lottery rule -- all fines etc in the middle.)

 

I submit that they don't throw at you for violating the "piddly" rules. I think the physical retributions (throwing at someone, taking them out at second) are reserved for the serious offenses.

It's not a simple one-punishment-for-any-crime system.

You really ought to read the book.

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Pitchers are fallible human beings.

Just by trying to hit (or intimidate) someone ANYWHERE, there is a decent chance this fallible human will miss the intended target and send the ball toward the batter's head.

 

Define "decent." I'm going to say if a major league pitcher is trying to hit you in the hip, the chances of him hitting you in the head and killing you are very very very very very very very remote, which I base on the fact that it hasn't happened in 91 years, and then under vastly different conditions (dirty balls, poor light, no helmets).

But, hey, if you guys want to say baseball's unwritten rules are stupid because someone could get killed, have at it.

I think they should probably get rid of summer football practice too.

 

Ben Christiansen agrees.

 

Really? Because the batter has the nerve to do his job?

 

it's not about doing his job it's about other things that may have happened in the game. Is your Baseball acumen that low that you don't understand this?

Show me where anybody agreed that hitting a guy for simply doing his job is OK

 

You fuck up the debate by throwing "get killed" into it.

As long as throwing at a batter increases his chances of a serious or career-threatening injury, it's wrong a thousand times over.

 

What Pollyanna bullshit. I guess a hard slide to breakup a double play is wrong as well, or maybe running over the catcher should be outlawed.