In a recent program, I was able to reiterate my belief that
Baseball and most professional sports, are at their best when they police
themselves. Before the 1990’s, MLB teams were known for having rules in place,
given from the veterans to rookies and these rules, sometimes known as the
“un-written rules” and Team rules were
the glue that guided players into great, professional baseball players. These
rules governed the play of the game and most importantly, conduct.
When considering conduct, the rules were simple: don’t
embarrass yourself and don’t embarrass the team. It was understood by the
rookies that these rules, along with the un-written rules were to keep one self
from being embarrassed as well as not embarrassing your opponent – it was a
golden rule: If you don’t embarrass me, I won’t embarrass you. Respect. It was
also understood that the player was never, ever greater than the game and
often, teams had Kangaroo Courts that kept players loose and would penalize
“selfish” play. Selfish play was when you “showed up” another player, didn’t
run out a ground ball, loss of concentration, missing a play, admiring a
homerun and others.
Teammates kept teammates in line and most often, it was done
in fun and others, it was to impart the rules of the great game we call
BASEBALL. Players did this on their own and it worked, it taught humility as
well as respect for oneself and your opponent and it worked. Players have moved
away from Kangaroo Courts and look at what we have today: lots of players that
are out of control, off the field and on.
We can go back to this and make it part of the game again. We
can do it to enforce some of the larger problems today: players rushing the
field in a bean-ball incident, steroids use, cheating and other personal issues
which are detrimental to the player, the team and baseball. There was a time
when in baseball when a player was suspended for fighting, cheating, etc.,
teams were down a player till that player was done with his suspension. Why
baseball went away from this is a mystery and it is something that should be
brought back: If a player chooses to take illegal substances and is suspended,
today, teams can replace that player’s spot on the active roster with another
player. It should be that a team should be penalized for the actions of
individual players by not being allowed to replace the suspended player and
will have to play a player short till the suspended player returns.
It would work that teams would return to policing
themselves, not by choice, but by threat of having the entire team punished by
the actions of a player that chooses to be selfish. Think about it: players are
now put on notice that by choosing to do something that is against the rules of
baseball, they not only risk their careers, but they are now risking their
standing with their teammates. In addition to financial penalties, you would
eventually return to teammates that had to struggle with being a player down.
This is peer power at its best.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is being negotiated
now and if baseball wants to really take a stand, MLB should make this penalty a
part of the CBA. In addition, it should include penalties for players that run
on to the field which include suspensions and additional fines.
If players don’t want to enforce themselves, Baseball
Management can do so by working changes into the CBA and by modifying team
rules of conduct of players and rules of how the game is played. Baseball,
through its rules committee, can decree changes to the numbers of players allowed
at any time on the field, just as it does now.
