Unwritten rules or let the kids play? Baseball can't have it both ways

CHICAGO -- If you watch much baseball, you've no doubt seen the latest MLB promo so many times that it's probably receded into your subconscious. That's how much it's replayed. That's how much Major League Baseball wants you to get the message.

A podium is filled with many of baseball's current top players. At first, they answer unheard questions with the kinds of clichés that you know all too well. Then Alex Bregman goes into Alex Bregman mode, setting off a frenzy of bragging and trash talking. It's a good commercial.

The commercial is also scripted. The players recorded many lines, which were written for them, and the ad we see is what is left over after the editing process. After the bragging dies down, the player whom baseball desperately wants to be the face of its sport -- Mike Trout -- leans in so close to the camera that all you can see is, in fact, his face. How subtle is that? Trout says, "Just let the kids play."

This is the message baseball started circulating at the beginning of last year's postseason. That message was even more explicit in that it was a direct attack on the sport's unwritten rules, a note made all the more ringing because the commercial was narrated by Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

Let the kids play. It's the smartest, most savvy slogan baseball has come up with in a long time. It's a resonant message with real-world meaning on the field and off. And it's a message that apparently has not reached every clubhouse, nor has it filtered down to every umpire crew.

Speaking of scenes we've seen over and over: There was a benches-clearing incident at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago on Wednesday. Mostly, it was standard-issue stuff as far as this kind of thing goes.

It started when baseball's hottest hitter, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, was proffered a 3-2 fastball, belt high and down the middle of the plate, by Royals starter Brad Keller. In the trade, the pitch is what they call a meatball. Anderson did what talented, hot big league hitters do to meatballs -- he feasted on it. As the pitch soared toward the left-field bleachers, destined to land beyond the Chicago bullpen, Anderson fired his bat toward his own dugout. The bat landed near the on-deck circle. Anderson yelled -- at his teammates. He then began his trip around the bases, slapping hands with first-base coach Daryl Boston along the way.

Anderson has plenty of reason to be happy. At 26, the early part of the 2019 season gives every indication that he's a player putting it all together. He entered the day leading the majors with a .421 batting average. He has an OPS of 1.121. He still doesn't walk and soon he'll have to make some adjustments related to that. But he has become a legitimately dangerous hitter. Anderson is currently on pace to hit 38 homers and both score and drive in 114 runs, all while projecting to steal 50-plus bases.

Not for nothing: Before that home run, Anderson was 0-for-13 with five strikeouts and zero walks in his career against Keller.

That should have been that. Anderson didn't stare down Keller. He didn't look into the Royals' dugout. He didn't show up his opponent in any way. He simply hit a big home run for his team and celebrated. He did exactly what MLB -- through the voices of Mike Trout and Ken Griffey Jr. -- has told us it wants.

"I'm going to keep being me and keep having fun, man," Anderson said. "Our fans work hard and pay to come to the ballpark to come see a show. Why not give them one?"

Anderson's on-field fury contrasts noticeably with his clubhouse persona. He's not quiet or shy, exactly, but he is soft-spoken. He's family-oriented in his private life, and though he has been in the majors only a short time, he's admirably active in the Chicago community. In a sport desperate to recapture its reach in the African American community, he's exactly the right guy in the right city at the right time. That he's also becoming a fine player between the lines only amplifies the narrative he is creating for himself and his sport.

"I'm going to keep playing hard and playing for my team," Anderson said. "Keep playing for the South Side. I'm in the place where I want to be. I'm going to play hard and keep having fun."

Anderson likes to celebrate his home runs, and he has had lots of reason to celebrate against the Royals. "Sharing his joy" is how Anderson often puts it. And that's all it is. Anderson has no reason to dislike Brad Keller or the Kansas City Royals. It has nothing to do with them at all. The old rules, they also have nothing to do with him. At least they shouldn't.

On Aug. 11, 2017, Anderson homered off Kansas City's Peter Moylan, pumping his fist a few yards from home plate after he knew it was going out. Two days later, he took Jason Vargas deep, but he played that one cool. The White Sox were down 8-0 at the time.

Last season, Anderson homered at Kauffman Stadium off Danny Duffy in March, doing the same kind of hop and double fist pump he did on the Moylan homer. Later in the same game, he repeated the feat against Blaine Boyer, reacting in largely the same fashion.

Flash-forward to April 28 of last season. Leading off the game at The K, Anderson homered off Eric Skoglund. Not much of a reaction, perhaps because he wasn't sure at first that he'd gotten it. On Aug. 19, back at Sox Park, he got Heath Fillmyer, taking him out to the opposite field. Again, not much of a reaction. Finally, on Sept. 12, Anderson homered off Burch Smith, watching it for a bit before heading around the bases.

There was nothing excessive in any of it. Anderson never glared at a Royals pitcher, nor the Royals' dugout. He celebrated some, was a little slow to start his home run trot a couple of times. The only history between Anderson and the Royals that matters is this: Anderson has hit eight homers against Kansas City in his young career, two more than he has hit against any other team.

Anderson celebrates when he's happy. He's human. In baseball, circa 2019, players are supposed to be able to express happiness and they are supposed to be allowed to display their humanity.

"The old rules don't bother me," Anderson said. "They don't bother me. I don't have any rules. I play to have fun and play with a lot of energy. I'm going to continue to do that."

Well, even if you haven't seen it, you can probably guess what happened the next time Anderson came to the plate after Wednesday's home run. With the first pitch in the bottom of the sixth, Keller's 92 mph two-seamer resulted in what Forrest Gump would call a "million-dollar wound" -- Anderson took the pitch directly in the buttocks.

"Everybody has those unwritten rules," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "Everybody has their own, I guess. Timmy wasn't showing their pitcher up. He was looking to our dugout."