NL Manager of the Year Gabe Kapler Artfully Poo-Poos Baseball's "Unwritten Rules"
I am going to share with you three clips stemming from the Giants/Padres game the other night.
Here’s the first one, which sets up the story. It’s Mauricio Dubon bunting in the bottom of the sixth inning with San Francisco winning by nine runs:
Mauricio Dubon bunted for a hit with the Giants up nine.
The Padres weren't happy and Gabe Kapler had a word with his young player pic.twitter.com/eozjyySQ7h
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 13, 2022
People watched this clip and originally thought Kapler was reprimanding the player for bunting and therefore breaking the “unwritten rules” of sportsmanship. You’re not supposed to run up the score or be a dickhead or anything like that, right? That’s what a portion of the baseball community believes.
However, Kapler apparently was NOT disagreeing with the bunt, and spoke about it after the game:
Gabe Kapler says he supports Mauricio Dubon's decision to bunt in the sixth inning despite the Padres' objections pic.twitter.com/6yFiJeDwMf
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 13, 2022
And then Kapler, who was asked about coconut oil masturbation at his introductory Philadelphia press conference, gave another explanation the following day in which he shat all over baseball’s unwritten rules:
https://twitter.com/SamHustis/status/1514314575155372032?s=20&t=KWX8KlsMRe60TZ-PLSHcGg
All of this is fantastic. Kapler is saying, as nice as he can, that his team is going to stomp a mud hole in your ass and that he doesn’t give a fuck about your feelings. If you don’t like it, then go out and beat the Giants. Don’t go down by nine runs in the first place.
The funny thing about it is just that. San Diego was down nine in the 6th inning. I could maybe understand if you were bunting in the bottom of the 8th, up nine runs, but the game is only 2/3rds over at this point. NO LEAD is safe in this game. Imagine calling off the dogs, then your bullpen comes in and gets lit up and all of a sudden it’s 9 to 5 or 9 to 6 in the top of the 7th. You never know.
I do think he makes a good point about “thresholds.” What are they? Do you stop bunting when up nine runs? 10 runs? 11 runs? Does Sean Payton stop kicking field goals up by 4 touchdowns? 5 touchdowns? That’s the problem with unwritten rules. They literally are not written down anywhere… by definition… so there is arbitrary adherence to said rules because everybody views them differently.
Anyway, respect to Kapler for this answer. Here’s Angelo after watching these video clips: