Agreed. Running up the score is a thing in football or other sports with a clock where there’s a finite number of points that can be scored in the remaining time. There’s no such limit in baseball, so quit whining and make a good pitch.
(For example, the Aug 5, 2001 Indians comeback vs the Mariners for an extreme example. Up 14-2 in the seventh, then 14-5 in the eighth, the Mariners lost in extras, 15-14).
I’ve been playing and watching baseball for EVEN LONGER than RickJay, and I have never heard this stuff about not swinging away on 3-0 with a big lead.
My favorite “unsportsmanlike” argument was when Pete Rose’s hitting streak was stopped and Rose was furious that Gene Garber, the relief pitcher who got him in his final at-bat, had thrown him breaking balls instead of nothing but fastballs. Somehow, in Rose’s never-humble opinion, Garber wasn’t supposed to try to get him out…
Rose’s quote after the game: “Garber was pitching like it was the seventh game of the World Series.”
No shit, Pete. He was trying to win the game.
This is idiotic bullshit. It’s the infantilizing, patronizing logic of the “Everyone gets a trophy” mentality, and it would be bad enough applied to a little league game. To use it about a multi-billion-dollar sporting industry staffed by millionaire professionals simply defies all reason.
I wouldn’t even apply it in football. These guys are professionals. If they don’t want to be humiliated on the field, then play better or get better players.
Other non-Americans can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve lived a considerable portion of my life in countries where different sports dominate the culture - cricket, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, Australian rules football. In my experience, the unwritten rule of not running up the score in professional sports is only a thing in North America.
And I’ll agree with you. I just meant that it’s possible to run up the score in football, without judgment if it’s OK to do it (for the record, I think it’s fine at the professional level, but less so in the patsy-vs-powerhouse college games).
But running up the score in baseball? It can’t be done, because there is no score from which it’s impossible to come back. If it’s bad manners to swing on a 3-0 pitch up by 7 late in the game, isn’t it equally bad manners for the trailing team to try to get a hit?
Yeah, that’s a rather different situation. We could spend years debating all the problems with how college football is organized.
Update: the Rangers pitcher who threw behind Manny Machado in “revenge” for the sin of Tatis swinging at a 3-0 pitch with his team up big, has been suspended for three games. And Texas’ manager was suspended for one game. The penalties are too light in my opinion, given the risk of serious injury to Machado.
Somehow it would’ve been OK for Tatis to walk and have the score go to 11-3, but a grand slam making it 14-3 is uncalled-for humiliation of the Rangers.
There’s something to be said for baseball tradition, but its “unwritten rules” are generally bullshit. Yes, major comebacks do occur* and it makes sense to play hard and put the other team away when you get the opportunity.
*glad someone else mentioned Win Expectancy before I had a chance to. 
**notice also that Tatis’ manager now appears to be supporting his swinging away in that situation.
Based on what I’ve read today, Tatis’ manager and Tatis were both “apologizing” because Tatis missed a ‘take’ sign. For the manager, it’s a big deal because he needs to know his guys are behind his decisions. For Tatis, it’s because he needs his manager to know he’s behind the decisions. Tatis’ apology was “yeah, I should have seen the sign.” The manager was “he got too focused and missed the sign, he’ll learn. Oh and apparently, I shouldn’t have called ‘take’ as it turns out.”
IMHO, nobody was apologizing for the outcome, just how they got there. I didn’t see the Rangers mentioned in either “apology”.
Yesterday Tatis stole third against the Rangers when the Padres were up 6-0.
Bwaaaa ha ha haaaaa
I remember Rose complaining in 1978 which makes me realize I also been following baseball longer than RickJay. Maybe not as long as you but man, I’m getting up there.
And as far as those putting down Tatis for doing what he did, get a life. I’ve never seen a guy so sad after hitting a grand slam.
Oh, oh. He’s going to get another talking to.
Actually, I’m glad he did that. Shows he’s not going to let a talking to after his slam get him down which is something I was afraid was going to affect his play. Tatis is one of the stars of this game and he should do what comes naturally to him, no matter what the score. If the Padres don’t like it, tough. Opponents are warned.
Yeah, that’s longer than me. I was born in 1971 and started following baseball when I was ten.
What’s interesting is that I had no interest in any pro sport at all, and become a baseball fan basically overnight. I’m not sure why.
I started really paying attention in 1972, but always remember the Yanks. Considering at first I lived 6 miles from Yankee Stadium probably helped.
1972 was the year the Yanks got Sparky Lyle from the Sox. Along with Munson it was the beginning of the turn back to being good. Munson was of course my favorite player as a kid, being of that era.
Reds announcers may have a problem with a hot mike. Not sure what they’re referring to as the ‘fag capital of the world’ but that isn’t what you want to get caught on a hot mike with.
Seems pretty damn clear. I hope it was an engineer opening the recording just to catch his worthless ass.
Well, he admits to it:
Blockquote
“I made a comment earlier tonight that, I guess, went out over the air, that I am deeply ashamed of,” Brennaman said during the fifth inning. “If I have hurt anyone out there, I can’t tell you how much I say from the bottom of my heart, I am so very, very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith. … I don’t know if I’ll be putting on this headset again. I don’t know if It’ll be for the Reds, I don’t know if it’s going to be for my bosses at FOX, I want to apologize for the people that sign my paycheck — for the Reds, for FOX Sports Ohio, for the people I work with, for anybody I’ve offended tonight. I can’t begin to tell you how deeply sorry I am. That is not who I am, it never has been. I’d like to thank that I have some people that could back that up. I am very, very sorry and I beg for your forgiveness.
“That is not who I am, it never has been.” Sure… Fuck you, Thom.
He apologized to those who sign his checks but not the LGBT community?? He should be joining the millions of unemployed, but there’s plenty of people that’ll be happy to take his place.
Fuck that guy.
He even called a home run in the middle of his “apology.” And the home run ball landed right in front of a sign that said “judgement-free zone”!!!
With his career on the line, he talk about his faith (which has been used against LGBT people forever) and then the people who sign the checks, starts to give a half assed apology which he interrupts for a meaningless home run, and then doesn’t even mention the LGBT community he offended. You’d think he got caught padding an expense report with a few premium martinis at the hotel bar or something just as trivial.
I