2010 Pre-season

The Unwritten Rules of Baseball

Does someone need to get thrown at because of a prideful act?  I’m not really sure.  While I do feel like Prince fielder’s celebration after his monster home run was a bit much, I also kind of enjoyed it. The reason I enjoyed it was because of the group involvement; the whole Brewer’s team came together and participated in one individuals awe inspiring feat (a monster home run). Its kind of like a creative display during an NBA dunk contest (which by the way was non- existent this past year) or a pre-Roger Goodell era Ochocinco touchdown celebration. To me, its good entertainment, which is the point. I am a bay area native though, and while at times consider myself a “fair-weather” fan my heart wants the Giants to be successful and I want to be a solid representative for the squad. Therefore, I need to try and understand where they were coming from in this situation, back them up (i.e. its okay that Zito hit Fielder with the first he threw in spring training), and be okay with the “unwritten rules of baseball”. So, briefly, here is my attempt.

Fielder could not just be an amazingly skilled major league baseball player; he had to shove it in his opponents face. As a result, and when a player does that, it enables (unwritten rules) the other team’s pitcher to hit the player with an 85-100 mile per hour fastball (probably lower 80’s in Zito’s case). I mean the guy deserved it though, right? It kind of makes me think if this unwritten rule applied in other sports also. For example, in the NBA if someone did a Mutumboesque finger wag after blocking shot, should the team be able to retaliate by sucker punching that player in the stomach the next time the team’s face each other. I guess I just can’t help playing devil’s advocate in this situation. Point is though, Zito did hit Fielder, I am okay withit, and in the long run I want the Giants to win. However, picking up a potential 30 home run 100 RBI guy in the off-season may have made more of a statement for me the hitting Fiedler with the pitch though.