Thanks, guys. I suppose if anyone wants to read it I can copy and paste it here. Is that legal? I'm a lawyer and I don't even know. It's my article, but does it belong to the NFCA now? What the heck, I'll just post it. Fastpitch Delivery might have edited this some, I'm not sure.
Unwritten Rules Make Great Game Better
During my first year in college coaching several years ago, we were losing a game by more than ten runs when our opponent decided a twenty-run lead might be in order. The team stole bases, squeeze bunted and cheered each run as if it was the winning run of the College World Series. I was livid at the time, but realized later than nobody other than one of my assistant coaches and the plate umpire seemed to care or even know about what I saw as an obvious breach of protocol. Having grown up playing baseball where the unwritten rules are mostly followed, I was offended by what I considered a blatant lack of respect for the game, and by extension, a lack of respect for our team. I had to ask myself later, though, if my players were not offended (apparently I didn’t teach them the unwritten rules or did not teach them well enough), did it even matter?
Since then, I have paid attention to whether college and travel teams follow the unwritten rules, to the extent they even exist in our game. My best guess is that 70% of college teams follow those rules (with the number probably being higher at the higher levels) and 50% of travel teams. That number seems to decrease every year. If barely half of our coaches consider unwritten rules important, surely a smaller percentage of players know or care about these rules. Players who do not know the unwritten rules certainly do not take offense when they are broken, so one might ask whether they even matter.
Coaches, how many of us have a rule about cell phone use for our teams during team functions? Probably most and we feel strongly about the issue. We have this rule because we insist that our teams show respect for their teammates and coaches by being present with them and not lost in texting or some app. Similarly, we understand that following customs in everyday life comes down to showing good manners. Coaches, what would happen if we walked around our campuses with a middle finger extended? (If you are like me, you are picturing a spot or two around campus where you might not mind flipping the bird). That would not go well, of course, as that finger carries a specific meaning. Walking around with one’s index finger raised would not be a big deal, although odd. Who decided to give the middle finger its meaning? I have no idea and it does not matter. The fact is that it carries the meaning and we either conform or be seen as social pariahs. Holding doors open for people behind us, dressing properly for each occasion and keeping our conversations at a respectable volume when in public are all unwritten rules most people follow. They are not actual laws, but we either follow them or we are ostracized from society. All contribute to a civil society by showing respect for others.
Each segment of society and every sport has unwritten rules. In the National Hockey League, not only is it acceptable to fight, but it is often expected. Not fighting in certain circumstances will break an unwritten rule. That code is so detailed that it specifies who can fight whom, which actions demand a fight and which make it optional, and how the fight will be carried out. Even the officials go along and let the fight continue until one man is on the ground. The radio play-by-play men play along by simply turning into boxing announcers during fights. One can argue that fighting should not be permitted in the NHL, but as long as it is an accepted part of the culture, it serves to keep vendettas at bay and keeps the combatants to a chosen few. In short, strategic fighting arguably keeps the NHL more civil that it might otherwise be. In golf, apparently nobody is allowed to make a sound. Heaven forbid a fan take a picture at the wrong second or Tiger Woods, standard-bearer of manners and civility, might whack them over the head with his driver.
In softball, just as in baseball, the unwritten rule that seems to be followed the most is in not humiliating another team when a huge lead has been established. That begs the question, what is a big enough lead and in what inning? No specific answer exists. One does not need to be a coach to watch game and understand when one team is overmatched, so an 8-0 score in the second inning of one game will not trigger the unwritten rules, while the same score and inning of another game might. When to call off the dogs is a matter of feel, gained from experience playing and coaching. I can hear the objection: “It’s not our job to get ourselves out or make life easier for our opponent.” It is also nobody’s job to hold doors open or to get up and permit the elderly to take a seat, yet we do it for the sake of manners and civility. Another objection: “If we tell our girls to go easy now, they will learn that we do not play hard all the time or be confused in future games.” No, they will learn that we do not humiliate teams just because we can. If they are taught the reason why we do not pile on in a rout, I seriously doubt they will have any problem going back to stealing bases, taking extra bases and squeeze bunting in normal games.
The unwritten rule in our game that is not regularly followed (making it questionable whether it qualifies as an unwritten rule), which is followed in baseball, is when a runner on second base is openly flashing location signals to a hitter. We see this practically every game in travel ball and occasionally in college. I think it is safe to say that the higher the level, the less we see it. Setting aside the unwritten rules, I think this is a silly practice, as the other team can use any number of methods to negate it and even turn it into an advantage for the defense. As more of a traditionalist, I believe it is an unwritten rule and we do not allow our players to openly flash signals from second base. At the same time, we realize this seems to be only arguably an unwritten rule, so we do not get bent out of shape if another team is doing it against us.
To answer the question at the end of the opening paragraph of whether it mattered when my players were not offended when our opponent kept stealing bases with a huge lead, yes, it did matter. We need to teach the unwritten rules, just as parents teach good manners to their children. Just as a society that follows a code of manners is a more civil one in which to live, our game is a much better game to play and coach when we implicitly agree to follow a code of manners, known as the unwritten rules.
