Watch: Frustrated MLB Pitcher Breaks the Unwritten Rules, Benches Clear Over '2-Year-Old Throwing a Fit'
The exact origins of baseball are hard to pinpoint, but most people generally agree that the first modern baseball game was played in 1846.
Per USA Today, that game featured the New York Knickerbockers and the New York Nines, a cricket team.
The game was reportedly played between the two using “Knickerbocker Rules,” but it’s unclear if the two used those “unwritten rules” of baseball.
For the unaware, MLB even recognized these “unofficial” rules back in 2020, and they largely all stem from the same place: sportsmanship.
MLB touted, “Don’t steal bases, swing at 3-0 pitches or otherwise run up the score when ahead by a large margin,” “Don’t steal bases or strut after home runs when behind by a large margin,” “Don’t show up your opponent” and “Don’t swing at the first pitch after the pitcher has allowed back-to-back home runs.”
(Even MLB admits that last unwritten rule is “hyper-specific and overly deferential.”)
And what happens if any of these unwritten rules are violated? “Throwing at hitters is the conventional retaliation.”
MLB would explain: “This is how bad blood is exhibited or violations of the unwritten rules are punished — with premeditated plunks (or, depending on the pitcher’s anger level or aim, tosses behind a batter’s back).
“It’s barbaric … but it’s been baked into the game for a long time.”
If the retaliation to breaking an unwritten rule is “barbaric,” what does that make a pitcher who plunks a player out of sheer frustration?
Apparently, that’s akin to a toddler throwing a tantrum, according to a Philadelphia Phillies player who was plunked on Tuesday.
Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos was none too pleased with Tampa Bay Rays reliever Edwin Uceta, despite the Phillies winning handily 9-4.
That’s because Uceta appeared to break those unwritten rules of baseball by plunking Castellanos despite the Phillies not really breaking any decorum or rules of sportsmanship.
Uceta came into the game in the eighth inning, with the score tied 4-4, per the New York Post.
Now, in fairness to Uceta, he did inherit two baserunners when he came in during the pivotal moment.
That being said, in a matter of moments, the game was 9-4 thanks to Uceta’s abysmal outing. He gave up a double, a single, a home run and a double after hitting the mound — not exactly the kind of game a pitcher would regale his grandchildren with.
With things already in a tailspin, Uceta saw fit to issue some unfounded retribution to Castellanos.
You can watch the aftermath unfold below:
Benches have cleared at CBP 😡 pic.twitter.com/hfMWbocLNn
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) September 11, 2024
Benches for both the Phillies and Rays cleared, as a clearly furious Castellanos had some choice words for Uceta’s plunk.
That anger did not subside by the time Castellanos spoke to reporters, per the New York Post.
“And I just told him that was bulls***,” Castellanos said. “You’re throwing a baseball over 90 miles an hour, and you’re frustrated, and you’re going to throw at somebody, you know?
“That’s like my 2-year-old throwing a fit because I took away his dessert before he was finished.”
According to the Associated Press, the Phillies outfielder almost saw this coming — and he knew it had nothing to do with breaking unwritten rules, save for Uceta.
“I had an overwhelming sense that I was about to get drilled,” Castellanos said. “We all just got a sense of what it was — he was just [ticked] off that he got hit around and his ERA shot through the roof.”
Uceta, meanwhile, has denied that he broke any unwritten rules with his apparently uncalled-for plunk.
“It was quite the situation,” Uceta said through a translator, per the Post. “I was struggling a little bit, so I was just trying to locate my pitches. It was a change-up that kind of got away, obviously it hit him, and was not the intention I was trying to hit him on purpose.”
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