Baseball has its own etiquette. There is no other sport where you regularly see players policing their peers. The problem baseball has now is that not everyone subscribes to the unwritten rules anymore. Baseball is filled with young stars who have no interest in spending their lives playing a game where there are no repercussions for slighted pitchers throwing up to 100 miles per hour at their legs and backs.
Ian Kinsler fed debate about this topic in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, leading people to resurrect the narrative that racial and ethnic differences play a large part in baseballs unwritten rules. Manny Machado has dealt with pitchers throwing at him, Jose Bautista has been involved in many escalated conflicts and of course our own Bryce Harper is the most recent victim (to the tune of a 97.8 mph fastball on the hip).
The upshot of the Harper/Strickland conflict is a three-game suspension for Harper and six games for Strickland. There’s no question that this is a much bigger loss for the Nats. What’s more important to me however, is the fact that I’m certain Strickland would be facing nothing worse than a moderate fine (if that) had Harper not taken matters into his own hands.
The backdrop of this whole debate is Major League Baseball struggling with ways to make the game more relevant to a younger generation. They are having an increasingly difficult time attracting millennial fans and have toyed with several rule changes to shorten games and make things more exciting.
My proposal is that baseball actually take Bryce’s 2016 campaign to “make baseball fun again” seriously. Stop letting a group of out of touch, old white guys who see themselves as the guardians of the game rule the roost. Turn the game over to your young superstars and embrace bat flips, embrace dancing in the dugouts, embrace large choreographed celebrations in the outfield. In short, embrace the fact that baseball is a game.
I can’t figure out a world in which it’s sportsmanlike conduct to try to intentionally injure your opponent simply because they’re a better player than you. If Strickland didn’t like the way Harper admired his homeruns in the 2014 NLDS, he shouldn’t have let him hit them. Be better, don’t retaliate. For goodness sake, Buster Posey wasn’t even interested in protecting his pitcher.
It’s time for the old guard to hand America’s pastime over to a younger generation. It’s time people, to make baseball fun again.
Tags: Bryce Harper, Nationals, Nats, Washington Nationals
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