Joe Maddon Just Ended the Debate on Baseball’s Unwritten Rules
It’s like Joe Maddon is a prophet of the baseball gods. Everything that comes out of his mouth is just oozing with baseball wisdom. If it’s ever possible for people to be fan of a coach, separate from his team, I’d say the Cubs skipper is leading the pack.
Maddon was asked about baseball’s unwritten rules in a conversation about Kris Bryant refusing a curtain call in Cincinnati after his 5–5, 3 homer and 2 double night.
Fox Sports — “I believe in the school that’s happening now…the old-school component; I like guys who play hard, run to first base. The new-school component for me, I don’t care about making the first or third out at third base. I just think it comes down to common sense.
A lot of the stuff that was written in the past, was written when this game was entirely different, when guys had to hit six singles to score three runs. Homers occur more frequently now, so when it comes down to all these later inning histrionics, regarding what you can and cannot do, I don’t believe in that stuff because the game has changed so much.”
“I do believe in respect. So I thought what KB [Kris Bryant] did yesterday, or the day before, was to respect Cincinnati, and the crowd, the Cincinnati Reds in their dugout in their home ballpark. That’s all he was doing, that’s all that I saw, respect. So I’m all about that.
Old-school, new-school, again, I really believe with us it’s a philosophy that really emanates from within our group and for us we talk about respecting 90 [feet between bases] , running hard from home to first base, playing the game the right hard, and I’ve always believe that humility is one of the strongest points that a human being can have. KB demonstrated that two nights ago.”
Joe Maddon wins…
This is my favorite response thus far to the debate between old-school and new-school when it comes to how the game of baseball is played. It just makes logical sense that throughout time, things change, including the game of baseball. The game itself has principles that stand the test of time, like not throwing at a guy’s head. But it will also have many things that change with the culture of the country we live in, like showmanship. Joe Maddon hits the nail on the head with this hybrid version of unwritten rules. I think a lot of people respect this view from Maddon especially because 1) he’s a winner and 2) he’s an older guy. Seeing an older guy respect the new age way of the youngsters garners tons of respect from Millennials.
Originally published at baseballfam.com on June 29, 2016.
