Retaliation? Showboating? Royals sound off on baseball’s unwritten rules

Baseball, more than any other sport, has unwritten rules that go with playing the game. Some are passed down through superstition, others are related to etiquette, and most lack any true consensus of belief in the clubhouse.

No “rule” is more divisive than when a pitcher intentionally hits a batter in retaliation after the opponent did something perceived as disrespectful. Third baseman Maikel Franco is opposed to this eye-for-an-eye concept.

“I don’t like that one,” Franco said. “Some things that happen in baseball, sometimes, you do something that you don’t want to do, you didn’t do it on purpose. At the end of the day, just play.”

In contrast, relief pitcher Trevor Rosenthal acknowledged that hitting batters is sometimes necessary to protect your teammates, especially if the order comes from one of the clubhouse’s higher-ups.

“If the manager — so if we’re in a game, and (Mike) Matheny asked as a staff, or a person individually (said) like ‘OK, we have to hit this guy,’ that’s something you have to do,” Rosenthal said. “You can’t be like, ‘Oh, I can’t do that. That’s not me.’ Whether it’s you or not, it’s not about you, like it’s doing it for one, your manager, your boss, and the guys on the team.”

Rosenthal said the one time he participated in this “unwritten rule,” it was an exhilarating experience.

“I’ve only had to do it like once in my career, and it was in the minor leagues, but I loved it,” Rosenthal said. “I was the starting pitcher, it was the night before a guy pimped a home run, and my manager was like, the next day, he’s like, ‘The first time this guy comes up, you hit him,’ and I was like, ‘Yes!’ So I did it, and nothing happened, like he knew it was coming kind of deal.

“There’s obviously a right way to do (it), you know. Like (Matt) Holliday got hit when I was in St. Louis by (Clayton) Kershaw but he hit him right in the backside, like not up at his head and stuff. It’s different when you start angrily, maliciously attacking somebody, versus it’s part of the game.”

Catcher Salvador Perez stands more in the middle, saying “If you hit one of our guys, we’re going to hit one of your guys, if it was intentional. If it’s not, just play the game. … We play together, we fight together.”

All three players said there’s a certain respect you must have for the game, and there are certain scenarios that would violate this basic decency.

Bunting to break up a no-hitter?

“You’re going to get hit for the rest of the season,” Perez said, laughing. “I think after the sixth or seventh inning, you just try to hit. I don’t care (about) the score or the situation.”

Stealing or advancing bases on wild pitches, meanwhile, is looked at as extremely disrespectful to the losing team if it’s a blowout.

“At the end of the day, we have to respect the game,” Franco said. “You cannot steal a base because we’re winning by so many runs, you’re not going to do it. … It’s that kind of stuff that I like.”

A bit less serious than blatant disrespect are the fiery reactions by players when they hit a home run, or strike someone out. Showboating might offend baseball purists, but Rosenthal sees the value it has in making games exciting.

“I’m pretty low-key, like I could never see myself pimping strikeouts, stuff like that,” Rosenthal said. “But I like to see when people do it, like I think it’s cool when a pitcher has some flare, when hitters have some flare. It’s fun to watch, it’s just not my personality.”

Every player will have their own view on what’s right and wrong in terms of baseball’s lengthy set of unwritten rules. But one that everyone seems to agree on is showing basic respect for opponents and the game they all love to play.