Why Baseball Umpires Should Allow Pitchers to Police the Game

Baseball is a sport that contains a lot of unwritten rules and protocols. There is the actual rule book, and then there are the closely-guarded secrets that would probably make good fodder for a Dan Brown novel.

Take, for example, the protocol involving intentional beanings. When one of their guys hits one of your guys with a pitch, a team is compelled to respond in kind by hitting one of their guys. It's a true "eye for an eye" system that's been around since the time when apes were playing baseball with bones and rocks and a ball off the big black monolith in center field counted for an automatic double.

I like to call it the "Game of Throwns."

We saw this protocol illustrated on Sunday in Washington in a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the hometown Nationals. Phillies starter Cole Hamels plunked star rookie Bryce Harper in the back in the first inning, and Nats starter Jordan Zimmermann retaliated by hitting Hamels when he came to bat in the third inning.

MLB.com has the video.

This incident has given rise to a bit of controversy, and that has everything to do with Hamels' admission (see AP report) that he plunked Harper on purpose.

If Hamels had kept his mouth shut, our discussion of Sunday's incident would be centered more around how the umpires handled it. We see umpires mismanage beaning kerfuffles all the time, but the crew at Nationals Park on Sunday did a fairly decent job managing the one they were presented with.

When Hamels hit Harper, nothing happened. Nobody got tossed, and no warning was issued. When Zimmermann hit Hamels, home plate umpire Andy Fletcher emerged and issued a warning to both benches.

Most will point out that this is exactly how the umpiring crew should have handled the incident, and Major League Baseball officials would probably agree.

And this, I think, is exactly the problem. There are always ways to make things better, and Sunday's incident would have been handled perfectly if no warning had been issued after Hamels got plunked by Zimmermann.

The truth of the matter is that Zimmermann wasn't trying to start a war with the Phillies when he hit Hamels; he was trying to show his young teammate that he's got his back. He was merely trying to get even, and he was sending a message just as much to Harper as he was to the Phillies.

That's as far as the incident could have gone. But after the warning was issued, the dynamics of the game were changed completely. The inside part of the plate suddenly became a danger area for both pitchers, as a single slip in command could have meant an immediate ejection. 

After warnings are issued, umpire judgment becomes a major factor. If Hamels or Zimmermann had hit a batter with a wild curveball, Fletcher would have had a judgment call to make. If one of them had legitimately let loose with a wild fastball, Fletcher would have had to make a judgment call in that case too.

Basically, what happened was that Fletcher allowed Zimmermann to police the game up until the moment he hit Hamels, and then he placed the policing of the game under the jurisdiction of the umpiring crew. This is something that happens a lot, and the given game in which it happens is going to take a hard left turn every time it does.

Instead of issuing warnings after a retaliation beaning happens, here's what umpires should do: nothing.

By doing nothing, what the umps will be doing is trusting that both sides have had their fun, and that both sides will be content to recognize that the score is evened. The game can continue on with the inside part of the plate still a safe area for pitchers on both teams.

In this world, umpires will issue warnings after a third beaning takes place. A warning in a scenario like that would effectively send the following message: "All right, you knew the score and you broke the ceasefire. Now you've gone and ruined it for everyone."

Punishment for the pitcher who threw the third beanball could come swiftly after the game from the league offices. Suspensions and/or fines would be a good way for the league to send a message that pitchers who break player-instituted ceasefires will not be tolerated. 

Naturally, exceptions would have to be made. Any fastball near a hitter's head should be met with intense scrutiny, especially if it's coming off a prior beaning. That's a situation that could quickly escalate out of control, and it would be perfectly fine for umpires to step in and do their best to keep the peace. 

For that matter, any pitch near the head is a situation that could get out of control. If a player hits a home run in one at-bat and then has a fastball zip past his nose in his next at-bat, umpires should feel free to jump the gun and issue warnings immediately.

The rest of the time, the players and teams should be trusted to keep the peace on their own. The umpires should let them play the Game of Throwns in peace, only stepping in when a rogue player breaks the rules.

Instead of treating players as childish idiots who can't control their emotions, umpires should treat players as professionals who know baseball's unwritten rules by heart.

If you want to talk about the Game of Throwns or the Game of Thrones, hit me up on Twitter.