Cranky old guys

 Hey, I get where Tony LaRussa is coming from. I'm a cranky old guy, too.

I can shake my fist and shout at the clouds with the best of 'em, and wonder when this handbasket showed up to take the world to hell. I surely can.

I wonder, at my advanced age, how an entire American political party was hijacked by carnival hucksters and mental patients. And when social media (lookin' at you, Facebook) turned into Orwellian thought police devoid of a humor gene but equipped with a stick up their ass. And when satire died ... and when bigotry started getting invited to all the best parties ... and when baseball went to WAR.

Speaking of which ...

Back to LaRussa.

The manager of the Chicago White Sox is 76-years-old and probably thinks all this analytics business is for the birds, too. But  even this cranky old guy thinks he's been cast adrift on the Out Of Touch Sea. 

The latest example happened last night, when star rookie Yermin Mercedes of the Chisox launched a meatball pitch out of the confines in the ninth inning of a shellacking of the Twins. The score was 15-4 at the time, and the Twins had surrendered, sending out to a position player to lob batting-practice pitches to the Sox hitters.

The count got to 3-0 on Mercedes, which baseball's sainted unwritten rules say is a take-all-the-way situation. But the Twins' pitcher threw another fatty, and Mercedes parked it.

LaRussa was steamed. Called it "a big mistake," and "clueless."

The Blob's position is, yeah, it probably wasn't very sportsmanlike. But the Twins are the ones who made a farce of things in the first place by sending a non-pitcher to the bump. And if you're gonna just give up like that, why should Mercedes or any other opposing player honor that by keeping the bat glued to his shoulder?

So Mercedes jumped on the pitch. Because where is it written that if one team quits playing, the other should, too?

I'm sure the fans in attendance didn't mind, home runs being so popular and all. After all, what's the most popular event surrounding the All-Star Game?

Thaaaat's right. The Home Run Derby, in which selected power hitters get served meatballs and take 'em for a ride.

Now, a legit game isn't Home Run Derby, but the Twins turned it into one. Mercedes simply played along.

And those unwritten rules?

As the Blob has said many times before: There's a reason they're unwritten.

'Cause they're stupid.