Andy Nesbitt
April 14, 2022 8:56 am ET
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Baseball can be a fun sport. It can also be a very silly sport with grown men getting upset over some dumb unwritten rules that nobody with a brain should be following anymore.
The latest examples of this came the other night in San Francisco when Giants center fielder Steven Duggar had the gall to steal second base in the second inning with his team leading San Diego by nine runs.
The Padres were not happy about that at all even though it was just the second inning. (For those wondering, yes, MLB games still consist of nine full innings.)
Things got even more lame for the Padres when they later got mad at Giants shortstop Mauricio Dubon for having the audacity to bunt his way on to base with his team leading 10-1 in the sixth inning.
How dare he do a normal baseball thing!? Bunting to get on base in the middle of the game? That sort of stuff can not happen in this game of, er, baseball!
Padres manager Bob Melvin got salty about that because apparently if you have a big lead you’re supposed to stop trying because the other team – whose roster is made up entirely of adults – doesn’t want their little feelings to get hurt.
You know who was really upset about that bunt? Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer. I’m not sure if this fella is ever going to recover from that moment.
Look what he said this after the game:
“I definitely told him how I felt, how we felt about it,” said Hosmer, following the Giants’ 13-2 victory at Oracle Park. “He said it was a sign given to him by their staff. I just told him I think you’ve got to be a little bit smarter in that situation. You’ve been playing professional ball for a good amount of time obviously if you’re at this level. You’ve got to be smarter than that.”
Isn’t that just the saddest thing ever? You’re not supposed to bunt when you have a big lead in the sixth? You have to be smarter than that? Projection, much!?
Thankfully Giants manager Gabe Kapler is the hero we’re looking for in this battle against the dumb unwritten rules of baseball. After the game he rightfully backed up both decisions (which were just to play the game of baseball the way it’s supposed to be played) and made complete sense in doing so.
He said:
“I fully support both of those decisions. Our goal is not exclusively to win one game in a series. It’s to try to win the entire series. Sometimes, that means trying to get a little deeper into the opposition’s ‘pen. I understand that many teams don’t love that strategy.”
“And I get why. It’s something that we talked about as a club before the season and that we were comfortable going forward with that strategy. It’s not to be disrespectful in any way. It’s because we feel very cool and strategic. It’s the best way to win a series. When I say cool, I mean calm. We’re not emotional about it. We’re not trying to hurt anybody. We just want to score as many runs as possible, force the other pitcher to throw as many pitches as possible. If other clubs decide that they want to do the same thing to us, we’re not going to have any issue with it.”
THANK YOU, GABE KAPLER. THANK YOU.
He spoke more about this yesterday:
Gabe Kapler doubled down on his stance to disregard baseball's 'unwritten rules'.
"If we don't want a team to bunt, we will defend the bunt. If we don't want a team to steal, we will defend the steal. If we don't want a team to swing 3-0 late in the game, we'll throw a ball." pic.twitter.com/0XJ5fE3VX9
— Sam Hustis (@SamHustis) April 13, 2022
Well said, dude. Well said.
Imagine having to defend yourself for making decisions to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.
I still can’t believe the Padres (who, again, are a professional sports team made up entirely of adults) got mad over a play in the second inning of a game and then got really mad over another one in the sixth inning of a game. The Giants did nothing wrong. You want to score as much as you can. If you’re the other team and you can’t stop them from doing that then don’t get mad at the other team, get mad at yourselves!
This isn’t 6-year-old tee-ball in the park, Padres.
Kapler and others need to keep pushing back on these ridiculous unwritten rules.
And the Padres need to play better baseball and stop being so lame.
Quick hits: John Sterling’s hilarious blown home-run call… Consensus NFL mock draft… Kershaw pulled from perfect game… And more.
– Yankees announcer John Sterling thought for sure that Giancarlo Stanton had hit a home run last night against the Blue Jays. Instead, the ball landed in an outfielder’s glove on the warning track. This was hilarious.
– The 2022 NFL Draft is quickly approaching and here is a consensus look at how the internet sees it playing out.
– The Dodgers pulled Clayton Kershaw after seven innings of a perfect game and MLB fans were crushed. Kershaw later explained why he was cool with the decision.
– My pal Bryan Kalbrosky , who led the Hawks to a big play-in game win over the Hornets last night.
