There are tens of thousands of other articles and social media posts on how pointless the unwritten rules of baseball are. This article isn’t about that. When Chicago White Sox manager Tony LaRussa called Yermin Mercedes clueless for hitting this home run, it highlighted something far more ridiculous.
You’re probably skeptical that something could be more ridiculous than a set of rules governing how baseball should be played because it is how someone’s grandpa remembers the game from 40-years ago. Please, bear with me.
The fact Tony LaRussa had the audacity to call another person within MLB clueless just boggles the mind. That’s because the former Oakland A’s skipper admitted to not knowing the extra innings rules in a game earlier this year.
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Sure, it was a bit of an obscure rule. But that is the exact kind of detail LaRussa gets paid millions to know. There is also a huge difference in the situation between Mercedes’ minor indiscretion and the manager’s brain burp.
LaRussa being clueless caused the White Sox to lose. Mercedes hit a home run against an infielder in a game Chicago was winning 15-4. Unwritten rules or not, one incident seems much dumber than the other.
Yet, the person who didn’t even know the actual rules is upset at a player for not knowing baseball’s unwritten rules. As utterly stupid as this is, somehow LaRussa made it worse.
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Tony LaRussa is really clueless
In the same press conference in which LaRussa called Mercedes clueless, he also uttered this gem of a line:
“We were taught from day one to respect the game, respect the competition, respect the opponent.”
Respect the game? You want to know the best way to respect the game? Know the freaking rules. Not some nonsense about how you think baseball should be played. But the actual regulations that can determine which team wins and which team loses.
Then again, that might be asking too much from a guy who once attended a Glen Beck rally thinking it wasn’t going to be political. When LaRussa is inevitably fired by the White Sox, maybe the Insane Clown Posse can invite him to what they describe as a wholesome, family picnic.
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