Read the debate intro and Bleacher Fan’s argument to keep the unspoken rules unspoken.
Welcome, baseball, to the Internet Age – the age of information. Every google search result turns up a “sports insider” or “team insider” result. No information is sacred or secret anymore. Information will be leaked (just ask Bud Selig’s President in charge of the Steroids List). The lesson? Baseball can avoid embarrassment by being honest.
No one in baseball is more honest than White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. That is mainly because the filter between his brain and his mouth is broken… and that is perfectly okay with me. Ozzie Guillen adds the honesty the sports landscape that fans have not seen in eons. Honesty is good, no great, for fans. I know that because anytime baseball is considering a fine for someone simply for being honest, the fan probably wins.
Guillen speaks the truth – a truth that is blasted to the world thanks to the Internet Age – and he is willing to stand up for his players, too. That is a good thing for his team, and a good thing for baseball. The fact that he is speaking an unspoken rule when defending his players just proves how ridiculous unspoken rules are.
Here is the main reason why it is perfectly okay to speak the unspoken rules of baseball – it is insulting not to. Every baseball fan in the world knows when a New York Yankee plunks a member of the Red Sox, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, or Dustin Pedroia better strap in because they are about to be hit. And now the league knows that about White Sox players, too, because Guillen said it. Good for him.
Also, baseball is not the Central Intelligence Agency, where a spook will retire then pen a book about all of the things they were unable to talk about when they were on the job. It is just baseball. No high-minded gentlemanliness is here to protect anyone. No one is doing the right thing by not blowing the whistle. If a manager wants to call out a player for intentionally throwing at one of his players, or a pitcher for having a weird smudge on their hand, they should do that. Speaking the unspoken rules of baseball enhances the fairness of the game and eliminates the secrets that keep fans frustratingly in the dark.
We need to understand, too, that not all of the unspoken rules of baseball are controversial. It is an “unspoken rule” not to out the tying run on base, or go against percentages when building the lineup or deciding a pinch hitter, or no to make the power hitter bunt, or not mention a no hitter while it is in progress. There are a bunch of these unspoken rules, and they are all good… if not a little antiquated.
All of the supposedly unspoken rules of baseball have a common link – common sense. If they are logical rules, why not talk about them? Some of them are unspoken because they are obvious. For the ones that are not obvious (but should be) I am glad baseball has people like Ozzie Guillen to shine light on issues that need to be spoken about so fans do not have to have their intelligence insulted. If baseball is implementing instant replay to keep the game more fair, why not use simple honesty to achieve the same end? Calling out a player with sandpaper in their glove, or a razor blade in their mitt (ahem, Don Sutton, ahem), the game is improved. Honesty is good for the fans, and so are honesty people like Ozzie Guillen. Baseball could use a few more like him.
