The rules

Sports has been ongoing in my life to some extent since I was a little boy. I don't get to play much anymore, but I keep up on things. In my formative years, baseball was my game. I started at eight years old playing organized ball and hung up my glove a year after school. Although I never played at the highest levels, I know the game. I'm old.

Recently, much is being made of the unwritten rules in baseball. Players get mad at another on an opposing team because he did this or that. As these recent events have come to light, I thought I would have my own say. Mostly, I just don't agree with the complainers.

Yes, there are 'unwritten rules', but they have been bastardized by whiners and cry-babies. These 'rules' are really about sportsmanship. There are things you do in the heat of a close game you don't do when one team is getting the snot kicked out of them. You don't steal bases late in games when up by a ton of runs. That's bad sportsmanship; that's rubbing it in. That's like going for two after a touchdown when you are winning by 45 points. You don't taunt the other team. That's bush-league

Some of the supposedly 'new' unwritten rules aren't correct. You CAN block the plate in a close game. The catcher is trying to stop you from scoring. If you don't like it, run his ass over. You CAN bunt to break up a no-hitter. It's YOUR JOB to get on base any way you can. It's okay to clap your hands after you drove in some runs or hit a homer. That's not showing up the pitcher, that's celebrating YOUR success. If the pitcher has a problem with that, he should have thrown a better pitch. What, you don't like someone pausing to watch their home-run? Think that's a classless act? Really! How many times do you remember Reggie Jackson just dropping the bat and watching his ball carry over the wall? It happened all the time. What he didn't do was point a finger at the pitcher. That would be classless and unsportsmanlike.

If you don't want the other team celebrating, do your job better. It's not unsportsmanlike, it sports. Winner takes all.