One day last week, the Minnesota Twins were pounding the Baltimore Orioles 7-0 in the ninth inning when Chance Sisco, one of the Orioles' rookies, bunted for a hit. Bunting when you're that far behind (or ahead) and it's that late in the game is a violation. Not an official violation, but it goes against one of baseball's many unwritten rules.
To add to the offense, the Twins had shifted their defense and left a good portion of the third base side of the field open. (In addition, the inning before, the Orioles had elected not to hold one of the Twins' runners on base in an act of implied concession.)
Then came the bunt.
The Twins were not happy about that bunt. Their All-Star second baseman, Brian Dozier, as reported to MLB.com, confirmed after the game that he "was not a fan of it." He'd refrained from directly confronting the rookie who'd committed the faux pas while he was on base, Dozier said, because he expected that the Orioles' "veteran leadership" would handle it. I will venture to say that, quietly, some of the Orioles probably agreed with Mr. Dozier.
Why should anyone have a problem with anything so trivial, seemingly petty, even mundane? When did a bunt become an insult?
To understand that, you have to understand baseball's unwritten rules.
We continue to look at these unwritten rules through a cloudy lens. Breaking them, no matter how insignificant we believe it to be, is not akin to double parking, spitting on the sidewalk or getting a ticket for jaywalking. For they are more like religious tenets (and baseball dances with religious connotations in its descriptions: sacrifice bunts … sacrifice flies … saves!) and parenting legacies passed down generation to generation, adapted slowly, like an aging port.
Countries have gone to war over tenets, but not over the jurisdiction of the dogcatcher. Crusades have been waged over religious mandates, not over when to give a timeout to your son. But, yes, humanity has also waged war for the affection of the king's daughter or because of a personal affront to Henry VIII, so before we talk about bunting against the shift, let's look at all the conflict we have fueled over ludicrous and laughable priorities. It may not be war, but playing baseball is just being human.