Why baseball's unwritten rules have MVP Josh Donaldson fuming
Nobody's ever going to accuse Josh Donaldson, the American League's reigning MVP, of playing with the game without emotion. He's a fiery competitor and he's prone to outbursts just like he's prone to hitting the ball out of the park.
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But after an ugly exchange Sunday, even Donaldson is saying baseball's unwritten rules about beanballs are out of control and the league should be doing more to protect hitters from fastballs being heaved at their mostly unprotected bodies.
His beef dates back to Saturday's game against the Minnesota Twins, in which Donaldson was ejected after he getting into a war of words with Twins bench coach Joe Vavra. On Sunday, Donaldson homered in his first at-bat against Twins starter Phil Hughes. As he crossed home plate, Donaldson admits to chirping back at Vavra with the purpose of "letting him know I was coming to play today.”
In the sixth inning, Donaldson was facing Hughes again. This time, two pitches nearly hit him. One was thrown near his hip. The other went behind him. Hughes has some of the best control in the league, so the Blue Jays figured something was up. Donaldson complained immediately to the home-plate umpire, then manager John Gibbons came out and earned his third ejection of the week.
After the game, Donaldson was still fuming and unleashed quite a rant. Not toward Hughes, though, toward baseball's unwritten rules that say payback comes by a pitcher throwing at a hitter. Here's what Donaldson had to say, via Sportsnet's Arden Zwelling:
“Major League Baseball has to do something about this,” Donaldson said. “They say they’re trying to protect players. They make a rule that says you can’t slide hard into second base. They make a rule to protect the catchers on slides into home. But when you throw a ball at somebody, nothing’s done about it. My manager comes out to ask what’s going on and he gets ejected for it. That’s what happens.
“I just don’t get the point,” Donaldson continued. “I don’t get what baseball’s trying to prove. If I’m a young kid watching these games, why would I want to play baseball? Why? If I do something well or if somebody doesn’t like something that I do, it’s, ‘Oh, well, I’m gonna throw at you now.’ It doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
He continued:
“I don’t blame Phil Hughes. He was doing what was told. He was doing what was asked of him to do. Do I think Phil Hughes wanted to hit me? No, I don’t. I think it came from somebody else on the bench. My beef is not with Phil Hughes, the pitcher who threw at me,” Donaldson said. “My problem is with how in baseball you have to feel like you’re a tough guy by throwing a pitch at somebody who’s defenseless. I don’t have a chance. I’m not going to throw my bat at the pitcher. And in the American League, the pitcher doesn’t have to hit.
“The fact of the matter is, I’m not going to throw a projectile at the pitcher. I’m not going to throw a projectile at anybody. I go out there and I play the game. If you don’t like something I do, I don’t care. You’re not supposed to like me as an opponent.
“They’re putting my job in jeopardy,” Donaldson said. “What if he hits me in the neck right there? What if he hits me in the eye? You saw Stanton a couple years ago—he got hit in the face. The ball crushed his face. It doesn’t take much in order to break these bones in your face. And Phil Hughes didn’t throw the ball at my face. But it only takes an eighth of an inch off your release point in order for the ball to go somewhere else.”
Donaldson raises a number of good points, specifically about baseball's recent rules aimed at protecting players in other areas of the diamond and about Stanton's injury (though, it should be noted that wasn't a retaliation pitch).
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There's a fine line between letting the sport police itself and baseball micro-managing the physical well being of every player in its game. The self-policing and the unwritten rules are where things get dicey, but baseball teams and players, for the most part, seems comfortable with that type of law enforcement.
To change those tides, it would take a lot more players like Donaldson speaking out and trying to affect change from within the game. Because if MLB started to raise a gavel for every on-field spat or every purpose pitch in a 162-game season, its discipline department might never sleep again.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
