Sure, and tell it to Ty Cobb

Manager Bob Brenly and his Diamondbacks need to drop the haughty preaching about Ben Davis and his bunt during Curt Schilling's bid for a perfect game. The game is played one base at a time.

Bryce Martin
5/29/2001

If former player and Arizona Diamondbacks Manager Bob Brenly wants to lay down the rules of Old Time Baseball he has picked the wrong generation to don a big-league uniform.

In Saturday's game with the Padres, Arizona right-hander Curt Schilling had a perfect game going after 7 1/3 innings. The Padres' Ben Davis came to bat and spoiled it all with a bunt single, causing Brenly and some Arizona players to make their case to the press after the game that a bunt in that situation violated some ancient rule of proper baseball sportsmanship regarding such matters.

The Padres trailed 2-0 at that point. Schilling settled for a three-hitter in a 3-1 win.

Before Davis' bloop bunt single, Schilling needed five outs to corral the perfecto.

I don't know the odds, but considering the fact that only 14 perfect games have been pitched in modern baseball history, it seems unlikely that Schilling would toss No. 15. Certainly, though, it would have been a tremendous accomplishment, even if some mediocre pitchers have done it in the past.

Brenly, who was most vehement in his protestations, needs to understand this: The rules - unwritten and otherwise - that long ago provided an underside are ancient history, gone and mostly forgotten. Brenly is mixed up. He's trying to use a vaguely remembered old tribal custom to his advantage while overlooking the fact that his people no longer worship the sun.

Ty Cobb would have bunted on you in any given moment. And if an overthrow at first occurred, he would likely have came flying and then sliding with spikes up into second base. Of course, that was back when players were taught that the idea was to get on base. You can't score if you can't get on base. What a concept, especially now when everyone swings from the heels - and in so doing give up any notion of bat control.

Willie Keeler, ("Hit 'em where they ain't!"), knew how to get on base. I don't think it would be fashionable today if the game was filled was Keeler-like hitters, as it once was, splashing the field with single after single, game after game, year after year. That was Old Time baseball, back when revolutionary things like getting on base were considered basic to the game.

If Brenly understood Old Time baseball, his hitters would not be slowing down as they turn their heads to watch the path of the baseball they just hit. Instead, they would be running head down with full abandon. In Old time baseball, that split second lost by the runner's curiosity could have been the difference between a hit and an out. It still means that - and Brenly wants to talk about unwritten rules?

One of the most distorted views involving Old Time unwritten rules involves the beanball.

There is a distinct difference between the classic brush-back pitch and the currently popular beanball. The brush-back is a lost art form. Mike Piazza's playing Krazy Kat to Roger Clemen's Ignatz is the artless beanball.

An extreme example of the brush-back was when pitchers (in the old days) routinely threw in the direction of Mickey Mantle's legs, not to hit him but to force him off the plate and hope that the sudden jerk to avoid the missile would result in an injury to Mantle's legendary brittle knees. That was considered to be a fair part of the game and not a reason for retaliation.

It was evident that the days of Old Time baseball had passed with the arrival of California Angels pitcher Jim Abbott in the late 1980s. Abbott had just one hand and had to do some quick switching to field his position. When I first read about him, I figured that hitters would bunt on him early and often. Not only did that not happen, Kenny Loftin was once criticized for actually doing it.

Abbott had a rather average career, but he did pitch a no-hitter.
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