Felger & Mazz: MLB's Unwritten Rules Need To Go
BOSTON (CBS) - When your favorite team is nine games under .500, dead last in the division and possess less than a two percent chance of making the playoffs, you are left with no choice but to discuss trivial matters, like "bat flipping," "Cadillac-ing" around the bases and the unwritten rules of baseball.
The Red Sox ended a five game losing streak Sunday afternoon thanks in large part to David Ortiz's three-run home run to right field in the top of the third inning off Rays pitcher Chris Archer.
Big Papi put his exuberance on display by flipping his bat and "hotdogging" around the bases -- two big no-no's in the long list of baseball's unwritten rules, although common behavior for the 38-year-old slugger.
Watch the video below:
Rays pitcher Chris Archer took exception to Ortiz and instead of sending a message during the game, he delivered a statement following the contest to the assembled media, saying, "I don't know what makes him think that he can showboat the way he does, and then nobody retaliates...He feels like he's bigger than the game. He feels like the show is all about him."
Fellow Rays pitcher David Price is also no fan of Ortiz. He threw at Ortiz back in June and said afterwards: "It's just — nobody's bigger than the game of baseball, and sometimes the way he acts out there, he kind of looks like he's bigger than the game of baseball. That's not the way it is, that's not the way it goes."
Tony Massarotti, Marc Bertrand and Marshall Hook have had enough.
Baseball players, particularly the Rays, need to grow up on this whole "unwritten rules of baseball thing."
"It's asinine. It needs to go. Unwritten rules are bad," said Marc Bertrand. "We can't even define what these unwritten rules are. I'm so sick of the unwritten rule. I've yet to hear a good unwritten rule."
"I don't understand any of it. These are professional competitors. In the lower levels of sport there are rules of sportsmanship that apply, but these guys are adults," said Hook. "These are all well paid guys. They should be able to handle this. The whole thing is ridiculous."
Beetle added, "Shut up and play baseball. Quit your whining David Price. Quit your crying Chris Archer. The whole thing with the Rays and David Ortiz -- like would you give it up already? None of this stuff matters. Ortiz is going to continue to pimp his home runs, the fans are going to continue to enjoy it and you're going to get pissed off about it -- get over it! Enough already. I'm so tired of these guys crying and whining in Tampa Bay! What is your problem? Let it go!"
"If this rule exists, is Chris freaking Archer the guy that should be delivering the message?" Mazz asked the panel.
Listen below for the full discussion:
MLB's Unwritten Rules Need To Go
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