Twins manager Rocco Baldelli sounded on Tuesday like someone ready to rip a few pages out of the unwritten rules of baseball.
"I'm looking forward to somebody in baseball doing something really exciting today so we don't, as an industry, have to talk about this that much more," he said.
Baldelli was referring to the kerfuffle on Monday night when San Diego's Fernando Tatis Jr. took a mighty swing on a 3-0 pitch and hit a grand slam when the Padres already led by seven runs over the Rangers. Texas pitcher Ian Gilbaut threw behind Manny Machado on the next at-bat.
Tatis said after the game that he wasn't aware of an unwritten rule about swinging away in that situation. Baldelli believes the game is better off if players compete no matter the score or circumstances.
"I think every team should do whatever they have to do to win a ballgame," Baldelli said. "There's going to come a day where someone's going to stop playing to their fullest capability and you're going to lose a game where you're up by six or seven or eight runs because of that."
Also on Monday, Atlanta reliever Will Smith yelled at Washington's Juan Soto for lingering to admire a long home run he'd just hit. Soto responded with a leisurely trot around the bases.
Some have argued that unwritten rules are hard to follow when players don't know them all. And players in this era are learning how to be more expressive on the field _ bat flips, etc. _ without insulting those who are old school.
How can players express themselves without insulting others? "I understand completely that there are situations in baseball where people have felt disrespected on one side of the field for a particular reason," Baldelli said. "So be it. I truthfully believe every team should do whatever they think is best and we'll take care of our group and kind of operate the way we think is right and the team on the other side of the field should also do the same.
"If you're up by 15 runs and it's the last inning, I could tell you we're probably not going to be bunting, we're probably not going to be swinging 3-0 in certain situations but in any kind of competitive ballgame, and we've seen a lot in baseball over the years, I think we should play to win."
