Some unwritten rules should be erased

3 comments

July 27, 12:23 PM

by David Bush, S.F. Baseball Examiner

 

 

So the Giants are upset with Arizona’s Chris Young because with the Diamondbacks ahead 6-1 in the top of the seventh inning he stole second base.

What a bunch of hooey.

Young’s sin, in the Giants view, was breaking an “unwritten rule’’ by “showing up’’ another team. But if the Giants didn’t like it, they shouldn’t get behind by five runs. The team that trails in that situation isn’t expected to stop scoring, why should the team that’s ahead?

Baseball has a tremendous advantage over sports ruled by the clock. Those games all reach a point where a lead does become insurmountable. Scoring enough in the time remaining simply becomes impossible. But in baseball as long as you have an out left, you can score an infinite number of runs. The only limitation is your ability to keep reaching base. No timekeeper is going to end the game. Now, admittedly the bigger the deficit, the more unlikely the comeback. And even in baseball, double digit leads are pretty safe in the late innings.

But 6-1? Five-run comebacks happen all the time.

And the players should remember those sitting in the stands paid money to be there. They bought the tickets with the understanding they were going to see nine innings of competitive baseball. Not two teams trying their best until one gets a big lead then putting their offense in neutral. That’s not baseball, it’s soccer or hockey, two sports where teams ahead on the scoreboard do stop trying to score. Those stretches of tedium are part of the reason I find those sports hard to follow. Football has its 10 yards in four downs requirement and basketball the shot clock. Teams are forced to play at least a modicum of offense, at a slower pace perhaps, but a reasonable facsimile of the real thing.

Teams like the Giants should spend more time worrying about what led them to be down by five runs and less time worrying about what the other guys are doing on the field.

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