‘I shouldn’t have cared.’ Texas Rangers manager alters opinion on MLB’s unwritten rules
Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward had to chuckle.
Just a little bit, at least.
Giants shortstop Mauricio Dubón hit a bunt single with his team leading the Padres by nine runs Tuesday night.
Baseball’s unwritten rules had been broken again and it didn’t sit well with the Padres, including manager Bob Melvin.
Two seasons ago, however, the Padres were the team breaking an unwritten code when Fernando Tatis Jr. swung and hit a grand slam on a 3-0 pitch against the Rangers with a seven-run lead in the eighth.
The Rangers threw a pitch behind the next batter and after the game, Woodward voiced his displeasure with the 3-0 swing under the game’s circumstances.
But Woodward has changed his mind and is ready for the game to dispense with much of its unwritten rules.
“I’ve completely changed my opinion on a lot of those little, unwritten rules,” Woodward said before the Rangers opened a four-game series against the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field on Thursday. “But it’s still going to be a hot topic because there’s going to be old school guys where it’s in their DNA. I get it. It’s in my DNA. And I’m trying to get it out a little bit. Who cares? We’re still playing baseball.”
In fact, Woodward wasn’t exactly a poster boy for old school baseball code two years ago, even if the Padres moment made him appear that way.
“I didn’t like it, personally,” Woodward said after the game in August 2020. “It’s kind of the way we were all raised in the game. But, like I said, the norms are being challenged on a daily basis, so just because I don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not right.”
Two years later, Woodward acknowledges the game is changing — and needs to change, he said.
“Before that moment two years ago, I had changed my opinion on a lot of things leading up to that,” he said. “I know it sounded like I was old school that day. I don’t care anymore. I think the game needs to change. It needs to get rid of some of these things. I can admit it now. Looking back in hindsight, I shouldn’t have cared. It shouldn’t have mattered.”
The unwritten rules, Woodward said, have been handed down to players for generations. But even as a young player in the minor leagues, Woodward said he struggled to find clarity on some of those rules.
For example, he said, is a base runner allowed to steal up six runs in the seventh inning? Is that too large a lead? For some players and managers it would be fine. For others, it wouldn’t be.
“So you never had clarity on any of these things. It came down to respecting your opponent,” he said.
Making the other team work through its bullpen is a strategic advantage, not only for the next day, but perhaps later in a series and beyond. Maybe the team will have to make roster moves to compensate for an overworked bullpen. Woodward certainly has been on the wrong end of that experience.
“You have to keep pushing, keep trying to score runs,” he said. “The advantage we gain today in a lopsided win can help us tomorrow or even in the third game, or even in the Angels case, their next series. Maybe they’re a man down? Maybe they have to call up a guy. I know that feeling. It hurts you. We want them to lose every game.”
Woodward also likes seeing players get excited, too. Although he’s still not excited with over-exaggerated bat flips.
“I do like guys enjoying the game. I think we, as an industry, we do need to change some things as far as getting this game more likable, more watchable to the fan,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re entertainers. We don’t get paid a lot of money if we don’t entertain. Players need to recognize that. Staffs need to recognize that. We get paid $30 million to play a sport. We owe it to the fans to entertain them.
“I just think the game needs to change in a lot of ways in that regard,” he added. “I’d love to sit down and write them out. There used to be a lot more [unwritten rules]. We’re obliterating them every day, every week.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 5:17 PM.
