Baseball’s unwritten rules remain that way because if you actually wrote them out, you’d see how stupid they are. And Tony La Russa just sided with them over his own player. Good job skip.
Think about this…La Russa is ok with Yermín Mercedes being thrown at by the other team, but not with him hitting a home run. I don’t care how many runs the White Sox were up, or if it were me throwing the pitch, there’s no universe where that makes sense.
He also called Mercedes clueless when he’s the one who recently admitted he didn’t know an actual rule. Forgetting that throwing a baseball at someone because you are mad they did something fun is completely absurd, and about the softest response imaginable, who does La Russa think fans and his own team are going to side with: Him or the guy currently leading the majors in batting average?
Another White Sox star, Tim Anderson already posted that he, unlike his manager, has his teammate’s back. I suppose La Russa believes it’s worth possibly losing the locker room for Mercedes to learn a lesson.
As a result, not only did La Russa justify retaliation, he also opened himself up for others to point out his own previous lapses in judgment.
Because even if he and others didn’t like what Mercedes did, the only thing La Russa managed to do here was make himself the story, which I’d have to imagine is frowned upon. But I guess I’ll have to check those unwritten rules to make sure.
