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Top eight takeaways from MLB’s first half

Aaron Judge's performance is one of the top takeaways from the 2017 MLB season thus far.

Baseball’s unwritten rule book may be dying

Manny Machado

If you’re a person who thinks that baseball’s unwritten rule book is a sacred “document” and should be honored to the letter, 2017 has been a rough year for you. If you’re a person who responds to logic, it’s been the exact opposite.

The Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles had a feud early in the season and at pretty much every turn, Manny Machado was front and center. In an April series between the two teams, Machado slid late into Dustin Pedroia, hurting the Boston second baseman. Later in the series, Red Sox pitcher Matt Barnes threw high at Machado. Predictably, Machado was not pleased. Somewhat unpredictably, Pedroia was seen on camera distancing himself from Barnes’ actions.

Memorial Day brought another assault on the unwritten rules. Giants pitcher Hunter Strickland threw at Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper, who had homered off of Strickland in each of their two prior meetings. The meetings took place in 2014. The HBP resulted in a brawl between the two.

Strickland earned plenty of scorn. But he had to earn the admiration from the people who think Harper is just a showboat punk who got what he had coming to him, right? Well, not really.

Baseball’s unwritten rules are normally defended by former players, many of whom continue to have prominent voices. But to the extent that Strickland had defenders, they remained silent.

The most recent blow was struck by San Diego Padres manager Andy Green. In a series against the Cubs, Rizzo had crashed into and hurt San Diego catcher Austin Hedges. Logically, Rizzo was going to wear a fastball at some point. It never happened.

Murphy not only made starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin promise that he wouldn’t throw at Rizzo, but denounced the practice.

“What do you accomplish by hitting somebody? You accomplish nothing, he said, per Mike Oz of Yahoo Sports. “You put a man on first base, and you give them an opportunity to win a baseball game. … You don’t, all of a sudden, gain the high, moral ground because you chose to retaliate. You don’t, all of a sudden, get to pound your chest because you were man enough to throw a ball at somebody’s back. I think it’s absolutely asinine to even take that approach.”

Is this a sign that from now on, baseball will be governed by the actual written rules of the game and not some confusing and inconsistent code? We can only hope.

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