Book review: The Code by Ross Bernstein

The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and It’s Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct by Ross Bernstein puts in writing the unwritten rules of baseball. Baseball’s unwritten rules, or “code”, is a subject that I find interesting for several reasons. I think that knowing what the unwritten rules of the game gives the ordinary fan a glimpse into the world and mind of the game as experienced by the players, and goes beyond what is experienced from television or from in the stands. Another interesting aspect about unwritten rules is that if they are unwritten how does anyone know what they are and how does anyone agree on them?

The Code could have included more about the history and evolution of these unwritten rules including the changes and debates around which of these are still valid in today’s game. Instead the author chooses to base most of his book on interviews gathered from former players from the 1970s who have a very “old school” attitude towards the code. It ends up making the book seem like various rumblings of grumpy old men complaining about “kids these days” and “in my day, we wouldn’t have let anyone get away with that kind of stuff.”

Much of the code is about retaliation, specifically when and how a pitcher intentionally hits a batter with a pitch. The books makes it seem as if pitchers are constantly beaning hitters and it is just “part of the game.” My opinions regarding much of the code differ from the old school attitudes presented in the book. I think that players should be less concerned about retaliation after being “shown up” and should be more concerned with their own performance. The book also never discusses the limits of retaliation. There has to be unwritten limits on how often retaliation can occur. If every pitcher beaned every batter who had hit a home run off them, those hitter’s on base percentage would be even higher as a result of all those hit by pitches.

Another concept related to the above is that pitchers have to hit batters to “protect their teammates.” How in the world are you protecting your teammates by retaliating? I would argue that pitchers are in fact hurting their teammates by retaliating for perceived violations of the code. If a pitcher beans an opposing hitter as retaliation, then that hitter’s team may feel as if they need to retaliate. If you hit me then I hit you then you hit me back: where does it end? In baseball, it ends when the umpires and the league steps in to eject, fine, and suspend the players involved, which I believe is the correct course of action. Most of the old schoolers disagree with this and think that cowboy justice should be handled by the players themselves and that the league and the umpires shouldn’t get in the way.

I was hoping that The Code would have included more of a debate or dialog about the various interpretations of the unwritten rules as they are in today’s game. But instead the purpose of The Code comes across as the author’s way of meeting and interviewing many of the player’s he admires.

Rating: 4 out of 10.