This Week in (Dumb) Baseball: On official scoring, Gomez at it again – CBSSports.com

It’s Monday, which means our regularly scheduled programming of This Week in (Dumb) Baseball is ready for consumption.

As regular readers already know, this feature has the title, sure, but it’s mostly for fun— a fact that eludes the masses but remains the case. For example, if you tell me to “quit whining,” you are missing the point. I’m mostly chuckling to myself as I write these things (with some exceptions, of course).

For all This Week in (Dumb) Baseball columns, click here.

1. Just rule it an error

There is literally nothing in the rulebook that says a ball must be ruled a hit if it doesn’t touch a defender, yet that seems to be the accepted practice. Just watch this Kyle Schwarber “double:”

Now, from the Cubs’ and Schwarber’s points of view, we can apply what my Dad long told me on instances like this, which is that “it looks like a line drive in the box score.” It does, but it wasn’t. It was a defensive gaffe. What’s the point of assigning errors if we don’t do it on plays like this? How about when an outfielder completely misjudges a fly ball or loses it in the sun?

If we’re going to judge pitchers based upon ERA, let’s get the scoring correct. That’s an error on someone. Just pick a guy.

2. C’mon, this is an error

I understand MLB players wanting to err on the side of a hit because players stick together. A hit is a positive for the batter and doesn’t stick an opposing player with an error. This, however, is very clearly an error:

And yet, we get this after the game (via latimes.com):

“Are you kidding me?” said Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez.

“I asked five of their players when they were on base. They all said it should have been a hit. But you know? He threw a great game. Hats off to him. It goes down as a no-hitter, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that we lost. How it happened doesn’t matter.”

Are you kidding me, Adrian? The ball was hit hard, but it was right at Starlin Castro. And you were so hung up on it that you kept asking Cubs’ runners the following few innings? Good lord, get a grip.

Credit Gonzalez for steering the conversation toward Jake Arrieta throwing a great game, but from the sound of the quote one would have thought it was one of the most obvious hit calls of all-time. I just don’t understand how you can objectively watch the play and be far away from “hit hard, but probably an error” in the conversation.

3. Carlos Gomez in the crossfire again

A constant problem in baseball — that I end up covering here on a regular basis — are these so-called “unwritten rules.” Guys just decide what the “right way” is and if you don’t conform, you are a problem to the point that there are almost fights. Carlos Gomez plays with a ton of zeal and sometimes it rubs players and managers the wrong way.

It happened last week in the Bronx.

Gomez was mad at himself, but apparently that’s not OK due to the score?

Solution: Don’t be losing by that much. Otherwise quit your crying, Yankees. Man up and accept defeat.

“I think some guys took exception to the way he flipped the bat … He started yelling at me,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi after the game. “I just told him play the game the right way … Show a little professionalism.”

I have said different variations of this at least a dozen times over the past five years, but I’ll say it again: If you think an opposing player is acting like a fool, let him make a fool of himself. The job of an opposing dugout isn’t — or at least shouldn’t be — to play the fun police. It’s rather unbecoming and just makes them look like sore losers.

Just imagine if we acted in reality like baseball players act at times. Say I’m walking down the street and I see someone talking crazy to himself out loud. No profanity and nothing that would pose any threats to anyone else. Just yelling nonsense out loud to himself. Do I just keep walking and chuckle to myself, or do I start screaming in his face about how he needs to have a little self respect? Get real.

Again, it’s not your job, baseball players, to police how the opposition acts. Stop pretending it is.

I’d also like to turn the tables on Girardi and say that it’s completely unprofessional to start a screaming match with an opposing player from the dugout. Look in the mirror.

And now, let us wash away the dumb with fun!

Baseball card of the week

Big Papi in the minors.

#75 David Ortiz New Britain (1998 SP Top Prospects) @CBSSportsMLB @CBSSports @RockCats pic.twitter.com/Q7UD5uozBs

— CrazyCardGuy (@CrazyCardGuy) August 31, 2015

Video of the week

Every Blue Jays home run through Aug. 26 set to Johnny Cash!

Fan mashup of the week

The Cubs are Perfect Strangers? Sure, why not.

Fan tattoo of the week

Luis Gonzalez’s 2001 World Series walk-off. Money.

Gonzo meets a big fan with an absolutely incredible tattoo to prove it. pic.twitter.com/bhqqSKnP5a

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 26, 2015

On that note, it’s time to put a bow on this thing. Have a good week, friends.

Suggestions (dumb stuff, random videos, baseball cards, pop culture rankings topics, etc.) or hate mail? Feel free to hit me up: matt.snyder@cbs.com or you could always go to Twitter (@MattSnyderCBS).