A 3-0 count, up by 7, the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 8th inning, and your coach gives you a take sign. Instead of keeping the bat on your shoulder as your coach instructed, you tighten the grip on your bat, load up your leg kick, and take a swing at the 92 mile per hour fastball outside, hitting a line drive that clears the wall for your 11th home run of the season, and 2nd home run of the game. You take your jog around the bases as you smile at your teammates, you touch home plate and get ready for your congratulations from the dugout, but your manager is frowning? You just hit a grand slam, it is your second homer of the game, 11th of the season, your team is now up by 11, and your manager is upset. In interviews after the game, instead of being happy at your grand slam, you are now apologizing for hitting it because it was “unsportsmanlike”. That situation is what happened to San Diego Padres shortstop, Fernando Tatis Jr. on August 18th against the Texas Rangers. His 3-0 grand slam was frowned upon for “running up the score”, which leads to the question, are the unwritten rules unwritten for a reason?
“Just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right,” Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward said in an interview after the game. Woodward and the Rangers took exception to Tatis Jr.’s grand slam, and the very next pitch threw behind his teammate Manny Machado. Woodward and the Rangers’ reaction caused a few current MLB players to let their opinions be heard, as they felt Tatis Jr. did nothing wrong.
It seems as if every player who tweeted about the grand slam was on Tatis Jr.’s side, giving points like: pitch better if you don’t like the result, and don’t throw a pitch down the middle if you don’t want to give up a homer. The question remains, should Tatis Jr. have kept the bat on his shoulder, or should he have swung away?
“I don’t think he did anything wrong. You kind of have to expect something to happen when you throw a meatball down the middle,” Michael Conti, freshmen, said about the Tatis Jr. situation. Conti believes that when you throw a fastball down the middle, you should expect a result like that. He has the same point of view as most MLB players who commented on the situation as well: you throw a bad pitch, expect a good hitter to hit it.
“This is kind of a selfish act,” Keith Hernandez, former MLB player and current broadcaster for SNY said while broadcasting a game. He is one of the few who thinks Tatis Jr. did something wrong and believes that Tatis Jr. was only thinking of himself and not of the game.
As baseball gets younger, the game will slowly start straying away from the past, and eventually, the unwritten rules will become the forgotten rules. So, take your side on the situation; to swing or not to swing, the choice is yours.