Baseball’s Big Problem The Unwritten Rules
Let’s talk about a big problem in baseball today. The “unwritten rules” that exist in the game. The people are divided by those who hold on to the past and those who have moved on from these rules. And I think it’s time for baseball to move away from these rules and let the players play.
With baseball shifting from the 90s offensive display to today, where the league is constantly changing, the baseballs used to help pitchers pitch with swing and miss rates at an all-time high this season at 24.1%.
So if the excitement of watching players hit home runs is breaking these unwritten rules, fine so be it. I’d much rather witness players bash home runs instead of 6 no-hitters in the first month and a half of the season.
With players like White Sox Designated Hitter/ Catcher Yermín Mercedes, who’s currently in his rookie season, fighting for a chance to make a name for himself and make money doing what he does, hit home runs. I don’t see a problem with him hitting a home run on a 3–0 count, ESPECIALLY when a position player is on the mound.
Because in my eyes, when a team puts in a position pitcher to pitch in a game, they are just throwing in the towel and giving up on the game. So a player gets a pitch to drive in a 3–0 count why stop them when the game is filled with pitching gems, I think baseball should give us some more excitement and get the offensive display up in the game. Granted, we are still gifted by players who will be hitting 30–40 home runs a season. But I want to go back to the days when Tigers 1st basemen Miguel Cabrera and former Orioles 1st basemen Chris Davis mashed a combined 97 home runs (53 for Davis and 44 for Cabrera).
Granted, I want there to be an offensive increase in the game, but I do not want the game to go back to how it was in the early 2000s. Where players were abusing steroids, players like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire. Where it felt like every day, all of these guys would mash homers night in and night out. How these guys “saved baseball,” I think, was right at the time since baseball had just gotten out of the lockdown and trying to get the fans back to the games and get popularity up.
Since baseball has regained its popularity, I don’t get why the league wants to keep making all of these changes to make the game all about pitching and making it easier for pitching. Granted, the league did do something about that by banning sticky stuff from being used by pitchers. But that honestly isn’t enough. I don’t get why the league needs to constantly keep using different balls; it doesn’t make sense.
I feel like it’s time to drop a good chunk of the unwritten rules because they don’t help the game if anything; they are just ruining players’ chances of making it when they can’t have a chance to prove themselves because of an “unwritten rule.”
