More on Bautista and unwritten rules

You would think that, in a game that Edwin Encarnacion hits two home runs, the second one getting into the 5th deck (wow, wasn't that incredible), that Edwin would be the subject of all the conversation today.

But no, this is:

I will admit, I keep hoping baseball will, someday soon get past this idea that you throw at someone if they do something you don't or if your feelings are hurt because the other team has scored a dozen runs against you.

And, even if you think it is a good idea to throw at someone because they have scored too many runs against, you would think that someone would clue the Orioles pitchers in on the idea Jose Bautista is the wrong guy to choose to prove your 1950's version of manhood against. Up by that many runs, Jose is likely not very locked in, is pretty much wanting to get this game over with, but once you throw at him, he gets totally focused. He should have one of those warning signs, "don't get me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry".

Normally, I'm not big on spending 5 minutes running the bases. I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with celebrating a home run. I don't think there is anything wrong with a well done bat flip, but, after that, sort of act like you have homered before and you know you are going to do it again.

But if someone throws at you.....heck if someone threw at me and I hit that homer, I'd take forever to go around the bases. I'd have copied Joe Carter's World Series home run 'trot'.  You try to hurt me, I'll show you. I'll hurt you in an important way, push up your ERA. Like Jose said  "You throw at me, I'm not going to forget. And if I get you right after, then I'm going to enjoy it and I did." I really don't think there is anything wrong with that. It's not like he would throw his bat at the pitcher in retaliation, he's getting his revenge in a way that won't cause an injury.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a little healthy hate going on between teams. It gets the fans interested, but for me, throwing at guys is totally wrong. I don't want anyone throwing at Bautista (though I'll admit I really really love watching angry Bautista play ball). And I don't want the Blue Jays pitchers throwing at any of the Orioles players. I think that's just a stupid way to try to prove you are more manly than the other guys. Beat them where it counts, on the scoreboard.

Buck Showalter saying "We will take the high road" bugs me. You guys have thrown at Bautista twice and you are trying to claim to be the hurt party? You want to take the "high road", stop throwing at Bautista. Then you can start claiming the high road. It seems like he's trying to deflect attention away from a pitch that could get a player a suspension. It is a lot more fun to try to act like the injured party than to talk about how every time your team gives up a bunch of runs, you have to throw at someone.

Last year, Marcus Stroman came up and in on Caleb Joesph and we got speeches on how terrible it that a young player could do something like that, but his guys throw at people and 'whoops it slipped'.

And Adam Jones "I'm not going to let nobody show up my teammates in a situation like that when a guy is definitely not trying to hurt somebody. You're not going to sit there and pimp me. You pimp the pitcher, you're pimping me too." Ummmm right, you would think that Jones knows what it feels like to have a 95 MPH fastball come to close for comfort. He should have some feel for the idea that, when the same team does that to you twice in the first 3 weeks of the season, a player might be a little angry about it.

I don't know when it became fair game to yell at guys when they are rounding the bases on a home run. I know there is a  "fun police" group in baseball and I know they all think that their team celebrating is good but other teams celebrating is bad. I wish they would just shut up.

I do like that, after the game, when reports wanting Bautista to comment on what Jones was saying he said "I couldn't care less what Adam Jones is saying."  That's the right comment, don't keep going back and forth on it. The writers want Bautista to say something back so they can run to Jones and say 'Jose said this'.

Then Ryan Flaherty says this "There's a right and a wrong way to play this game, and that's not the right way," immediately putting him into the running for a color commentator job with Sportsnet. Personally, I think the 'right way' of doing things is to worry about what your team is doing and not going around instructing other teams on how to play the game. If I was making an 'unwritten rules of baseball' list, I would put that at the top, don't instruct the other team on how to play the game, especially through the media. I might suggest to Mr. Flaherty that the 'right way to play the game' is not to throw behind someone every time your team gets down by a dozen runs. Take your beating without acting like the other team has done something wrong by winning.

Anyway, all this will make watching the rest of the series more interesting.