Unwritten

by Danny Knobler

  It was notable that the Yankees didn’t retaliate with a similar pitch, just as it was notable when Weaver’s Orioles stayed away from beanball wars.

  In 1976, after Reggie Jackson joined the Orioles as a free agent, Jackson expressed his disgust when teammate Lee May was hit twice in the same game against the Royals, taking the second one in the head.

  “If we don’t hit someone tomorrow, by God, I’m walking off this team,” Jackson said after the game. “I know Earl’s philosophy about this sort of thing, but this time it’s different. We’ve lost eight in a row and you can’t win if the other team takes a 100-RBI guy away.”

  Jackson even said he was willing to “fight them all”—the entire Royals team!

  As it turned out, Orioles reliever Grant Jackson did hit Royals shortstop Freddie Patek (in the back) the next day. The Royals even thought it might have been a reaction to what Jackson said.

  The Royals’ reaction was just as interesting. Starting pitcher Dennis Leonard told reporters he considered retaliating, but that Patek told him not to bother. Instead, the Royals’ retaliation came in the form of an 8–4 win.

  “Reggie inspired the hell out of ’em, didn’t he?” Royals manager Whitey Herzog said.

  Leonard’s explanation after the game was interesting.

  “When they did hit Freddie, I thought about brushing somebody back but it would look so obvious,” he said. “Then Freddie said, ‘No, don’t do that.’ And really, it would be insane to stir something like that up.

  “If [Grant Jackson] was trying to intimidate our hitters, it didn’t work. He intimidated them eight runs’ worth.”

  Torey Lovullo, who was 10 years old, growing up in California, and presumably not aware of anything going on between the Orioles and Royals, probably had no opinion at the time.

  But two decades later, he was advocating the same approach.

  Lovullo might be an outlier in being so vocal about his feelings, but he’s not alone in believing that throwing at hitters intentionally is a strategy best left in baseball’s past.

  “I’d never tell a pitcher to hit somebody,” said Dave ­Martinez, who took over as Washington Nationals manager in 2018. “Never.”

  Martinez prefers to retaliate by finding a way to make the pitcher pay for putting a runner on base.

  “I was hit plenty of times in my career,” he said. “I’d get to first base and try to steal second base, steal third base, and score a run.”

  Martinez, who turned 54 in September 2018, was one of the younger managers in the game. But as Roberts and Cash proved, it’s not always a young-old divide.

  Consider what 64-year-old Joe Maddon said a couple of weeks later.

  “I’m not in favor of any pitcher throwing at a hitter,” Maddon said. “And I’ve never ordered any pitcher to hit anybody.”

  Many managers have said that, but what Lovullo said went a step further. Even a manager who isn’t ordering a beaning may well look the other way when his pitchers decide to hand out a version of baseball justice. For years, pitchers have handled this themselves, sometimes at the direction of position players on their team.

  Is that changing? Will the Lovullo edict become more widespread in the game?

  As with so many of the other unwritten rules, we’ll just have to watch and see.

  18. When It’s Still an Eye for an Eye

  RICK SUTCLIFFE PITCHED 18 YEARS IN THE major leagues and faced more than 11,000 hitters. He hit only 46 of them.

  And some of those were on purpose.

  In fact, Sutcliffe said, he had a simple rule when a player on his team got hit and it seemed intentional. His own unwritten rule, if you will.

  “I never had a manager tell me to hit anyone,” said ­Sutcliffe, who retired in 1994 and has since worked as a baseball announcer on television. “But if one of my guys got drilled, I’d go to him and say, ‘Who do you want me to get?’ I need those guys driving in runs for me.”

  It was about protecting your teammates, and in many ways it still is. The Tampa Bay Rays weren’t happy with having several of their players hit in a late September 2018 series against the New York Yankees, and in the sixth inning of an already one-sided game at Tropicana Field, Rays reliever Andrew Kittredge went up and in to Yankees catcher Austin Romine.

  It was, as Marc Topkin wrote in the next morning’s Tampa Bay Times, a “badly executed attempted retaliation” by a 28-year-old rookie. What followed from Yankees lefty CC Sabathia was a well-executed retaliation pitch that hit Rays catcher Jesus Sucre in the left leg.

  “That’s for you, bitch,” Sabathia yelled toward the Rays ­dugout.

  What made it all more interesting to many of those watching was that it was Sabathia’s final start of the season, and if he had stayed in the game for two more innings he would have qualified for a $500,000 incentive bonus for pitching 155 innings.

  “I don’t really make decisions based on money, I guess,” Sabathia said when reporters alluded to the bonus. “Just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

  By traditional baseball standards and the unwritten rules that have governed the game for years, there was no question it was the right thing. Sabathia’s teammates understood and seemed to appreciate it, and Sucre seemed to understand as well.

  “You can go ask [Kittredge],” he said when reporters asked. “He’s the one who decided to do it.”

  Notice that he blamed his own pitcher, because the unwritten rules also say Kittredge was in the wrong for throwing his apparent retaliation pitch near Romine’s head. By those same rules, Sabathia was in the right to show Kittredge and the Rays the high and tight pitch wasn’t acceptable.

  “I have a lot of respect for CC and if he feels he should need to hit somebody and he did it, I have more respect because he protects his players,” Rays outfielder Carlos Gomez told reporters. “That’s how the game is supposed to be played. You protect your guys, they’re going to protect you.”

  The only problem with doing so is that Major League Baseball doesn’t always see things the same way. Sabathia was ejected from the game and was suspended for five games. Kittredge was suspended for three games, as MLB followed precedent in levying a heavier suspension on the pitcher who threw at a batter after umpires issued a warning to both teams.

  “MLB has changed the calculus,” Washington Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer said. “If you’re on a good team and you’re in a pennant race, you’re always cognizant you could be suspended and miss a start. That’s the thing you always have to ask yourself today.”

  In Sabathia’s case, there wasn’t much to consider, at least not as far as his team was concerned. The Yankees were already far ahead in the game, and since it was the final week of the season, his suspension wouldn’t be served until the 2019 season began.

  But what if it had been earlier in the season? What if it had been Scherzer, clearly his team’s best starting pitcher, in the position of wanting to retaliate but concerned about a suspension?

  As much as his hitters might appreciate him standing up for them, would they be happy missing out on a playoff spot by one game and knowing their Cy Young pitcher missed a start trying to protect them? Then again, will they be happy if they feel pitchers from the other team are able to get away with anything?

  “Retaliation is a strong word,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s taking care of your guys. We play 162 games, and you have 25 guys, or more than that over the course of a season. You have to know each one has each other’s back. Pitchers and hitters, that’s something you have to have.”

  It’s more complicated now than it was in Sutcliffe’s day, or when Doug Brocail was a rookie with the 1993 San Diego Padres. The details are a little fuzzy two decades later, but Brocail tells the story of pitching the day after one of the Padres’ big hitters had been targeted by an opponent.

  “I had he
ard from the moment I got into baseball, take care of the guys who score runs for you,” Brocail said.

  He was a nervous 25-year-old kid, but he walked up to his team’s slugger and asked who on the other team he should hit.

  “Don’t worry about it,” the slugger told him.

  Very nice of him to say that, Brocail thought.

  “I did it, anyway,” he said.

  It happens, even now, and in most cases everyone on both teams understands and accepts exactly why it happened. As long as the pitcher keeps the targeted pitch low—away from the head, preferably somewhere around the hips—the batter drops his bat and goes to first, with nothing else said.

  The unwritten rules have been followed. The game has policed itself.

  And just as in Sabathia’s case, the pitcher who retaliated is seen as sticking up for his hitters, which helps his standing in the clubhouse.

  “There’s a right way to do it,” Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander said. “It’s about where you hit a guy. You see it all the time with veterans, where they get hit, they know it, and it’s done the right way, and they just take it and go to first base and they don’t say a thing about it. And then it’s done. Message sent, message received, everyone’s aware, and that’s the end of it. That’s the way this game’s always been policed.

  “If you start going high, near his head, then you’ve got some issues.”

  And if you’re throwing at someone, you’d better hit him. Jack Morris, who pitched in the big leagues for 18 years, proudly claims he never missed.

  “Seven for seven,” Morris said. “They wore a baseball. They never once screamed, either. They knew why they were hit.”

  Morris said protecting his players went far beyond retaliating when an opposing pitcher threw at them. He got more upset at opposing baserunners who went in too hard at second base, risking injury to second baseman Lou Whitaker or shortstop Alan Trammell.

  “I couldn’t afford to get those guys hurt,” Morris said.

  Baseball has also changed the calculus on slides at second base, changing the rules in 2016 after Chase Utley broke New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada’s leg with a takeout slide in a playoff game the year before. But even that didn’t settle every issue. It may have even made things worse in some ways, because infielders believe the new rule will protect them and don’t work on getting out of the way of baserunners.

  So when Adam Eaton of the Nationals went in hard to break up a double play on the first day of August 2018, Mets second baseman Phillip Evans took the throw from shortstop Amed Rosario and made no attempt to avoid Eaton. Eaton’s slide ­conformed to the new rules, as the Mets announcers noted on SNY and as MLB confirmed. But the slide also left Evans with a broken leg, and Mets manager Mickey Callaway insisted the next day that it was “a little too aggressive.”

  Three weeks later, the Mets let Eaton know exactly what they thought, throwing one pitch up and in and another that hit him on the backside.

  “If they want to hit me or throw at me, that’s fine,” Eaton said. “I’ll take it. Just keep it below the shoulders and above the knees, I’ll be fine with it. Put me on first base, I’m good.”

  Eaton took first base without a word, and the Nationals ­considered the issue resolved.

  The situation was different early in the 2017 season, when the Boston Red Sox took offense at Manny Machado, then with the Baltimore Orioles, sliding hard into Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia. The problem was that instead of hitting ­Machado in the butt, as Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler did with Eaton, Red Sox pitcher Matt Barnes nearly hit Machado in the head.

  As Verlander said, that’s a big no-no. Even Barnes’ Red Sox teammates didn’t defend his actions. Pedroia told reporters he texted Machado.

  “I just told him I had nothing to do with that,” Pedroia said. “I just told him that’s not how you do that. I said sorry to his team. If you’re going to protect guys, you do it the right way.”

  And as much as baseball might try to take over by changing rules and issuing suspensions, many players will still believe protection is necessary. Many will also believe that protection can come only from a pitcher throwing at a hitter.

  As Curt Schilling told reporters in 1997, he learned it soon after he signed his first professional contract.

  “The manager said he would kick my butt if I didn’t protect my teammates,” Schilling said.

  Schilling was speaking out because he was upset his Phillies teammates didn’t immediately retaliate after a Hideo Nomo fastball knocked Scott Rolen out of the Phils lineup. It was the third time Nomo had hit Rolen in 11 plate appearances that season (and two of the other plate appearances resulted in a double and a home run).

  Rookie Wayne Gomes was in the game at the time, and ­Schilling believed it was Gomes’ job to hit one of the Dodger stars in response.

  “In the most primal sense, those guys [the Dodgers] represent the enemy, trying to take food off our table,” Schilling said. “They’ve taken away our meal ticket. And Scotty’s a meal ticket for all of us.”

  Whether it was Schilling or someone else in the Phillies clubhouse, the message got through. A day after Rolen was hit by Nomo, Phillies starter Matt Beech hit Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza in the leg. Piazza, who suggested to reporters he expected to get hit, took first base after a stare at Beech.

  “I don’t like to get hit, but what can you do?” Piazza said to reporters. “Just remember and see what happens.”

  With the Dodgers in a pennant race, Piazza didn’t want to risk a suspension by charging the mound. His teammates agreed with him.

  “They’ve got nothing to lose,” Eric Karros said, referring to a Phillies team that was 35 games under .500. “We’ve got everything to lose.”

  As much as baseball might want to, there’s no way to eliminate every perceived need for pitchers to protect hitters.

  Pitchers are always going to hit batters. Hitters are always going to take offense if it happens too often.

  Everyone understands what can happen next.

  When Clint Hurdle came to Pittsburgh to take over as Pirates manager in 2011, one of his goals was to have his pitchers take back the inside part of the plate. The 2010 Pirates had lost 105 games with a 5.00 team ERA that was the worst in the major leagues. Hurdle knew that the more they threw inside, the more success they would have. But he also knew that a corollary effect of this strategy was that they were sure to hit more opposing batters.

  So in addition to talking to his pitchers, Hurdle spoke to his hitters. Be prepared, he told them, because if our pitchers hit more guys, there’s a good chance more of you get hit in retaliation.

  By 2013, the year Hurdle’s Pirates turned things around and became a playoff team, Pirates pitchers led the National League with 70 hit batters. It was no surprise to Hurdle that Pirates hitters were hit 88 times, also the most in the league.

  Hitters understand, and in many cases they don’t mind. They know their pitchers need to work inside.

  When Chicago Cubs starter John Lackey hit four Chicago White Sox batters in a July 2017 game at Wrigley Field, everyone including Lackey and the rest of the Cubs could figure out a Cubs batter was probably going to wear one. Sure enough, White Sox reliever Chris Beck hit Ian Happ with a pitch.

  “Their retribution was obvious,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “I had no argument.”

  Kevin Kiermaier remembers seeing two of his Rays teammates hit Derek Jeter with pitches in 2014. And he remembers being the first batter up for the Rays after the second one.

  “I knew I was gonna try to get hit,” Kiermaier told reporters later. “They missed me, a guy ended up getting ejected. I expected it, I’m okay with that. I get how a game works.… I would have had no problem if he would’ve hit me. He ended up missing. The game went on. But there’s other times when guys are out of line and you have to defend yourself.�
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  Hitters only get upset if they think their own pitcher was out of line, throwing at a hitter simply out of spite after giving up home runs. If it’s their pitcher protecting them, as Brocail was doing in his rookie year, that pitcher gets immediate respect. Sometimes he even gets more than that.

  “I think the guy ended up picking up my clubhouse dues for the rest of the year,” Brocail said.

  19. Is There a Statute of Limitations on Revenge?

  THE TEXAS RANGERS WAITED SEVEN MONTHS to get back at Jose Bautista. They waited through six regular season games and most of a seventh in 2016 to retaliate for Bautista’s flamboyant bat flip in the 2015 American League Division Series. They waited until the eighth inning of their final scheduled game against Bautista’s Toronto Blue Jays, when they had hard-­throwing Matt Bush on the mound.

  That’s when Bautista got a pitch in the ribs.

  “Gutless,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said after the game.

  Gutless or fully justified? There’s a way of thinking in baseball that suggests the crime of disrespect comes with no statute of limitations. You get your revenge whenever you can—and whenever you want to.

  Early in the 2018 season, a fascinating video showed up on the Internet showing manager Terry Collins and his New York Mets players arguing with umpire Tom Hallion during a May 2016 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field. It was the game where Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard was ejected in the third inning for throwing a 99 mph fastball behind Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley, in obvious retaliation for the Utley slide that broke Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada’s leg in the 2015 playoff series between the two teams.

  “Tommy, that’s bullshit and you know it,” Collins says on the tape, referring to Syndergaard being thrown out of the game. “You’ve got to give us a shot! You’ve got to give us a shot!”

  “Terry, listen to me and hear what I’m saying,” Hallion responds. “You get your shot. You had your shot right there.”