Unwritten Rules

My last post I mentioned unwritten rules in baseball. I thought it might be a good time to delve into them a bit and explain somewhat.

Unwritten rules are somewhat unique to both Hockey and Baseball. In hockey certain things are just known throughout the sport. For example everyone knows about the fighting in hockey. What they do not know is that fights almost always happen for a reason. Every so often you will see two players start fighting immediately after the puck is dropped. What they are doing is settling a score. Once they get their penalties for the fight everything is over. They have no hard feelings and they do not take it personally. Both men understand that the fight was business and their business is complete. Another unwritten rule is that you do not shoot the puck in an empty net after the whistle is blown.

Baseball has unwritten rules as well. The one that is most well known is the rule that pitchers do not throw at a batters head. These rules are something that I love about baseball, and hockey for that matter. It is a general kinship amongst every player that has ever played the game. Everyone knows these rules and for the most part abides by them. Some of the rules are just a respect for the game and what it can do to you. For example everyone that has played baseball knows what it feels like to be hit with a baseball. So they can only imagine what it would feel like to be hit in the head with a pitch. So in that sense this rule is about respecting the danger of the game. Some rules are just tradition. The quintessential example of this is the no-hitter rule. When a pitcher is pitching a no-hitter the players on the bench will often times leave the pitcher alone, sometimes even avoiding the pitcher so as to not "jinx" the no-hitter.

There is a label for people who break these rules and that is: Bush-league. Bush league has come into the lexicon as a phrase for something that isn't quite right. The origin of this term refers to someone who is unprofessional or simply not in the big leagues. Bush league is a moniker that a player doesn't want to have bestowed upon them. This could mean that players wouldn't want to play with this guy or don't want them on their team. It carries an extremely negative connotation and can be hard to overcome. No one is safe from being bush league. Umpires, managers, and even broadcasters can be labelled as bush. It all stems from breaking these unwritten rules.

These rules are what makes baseball, and hockey, so great. That and history, but that's another story.